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OU Baseball: Oklahoma's Skip Johnson Named ABCA Central Region Coach of the Year

After winning the Big 12 regular season title and hosting an NCAA Regional in Norman for the first time in over a decade, Skip Johnson was recognized on Tuesday.

Randall Sweet

Oklahoma baseball head coach Skip Johnson
Oklahoma baseball head coach Skip Johnson / Olivia Raymond/For the Avalanche-Journal

By OU Media Relations

NORMAN – Oklahoma head baseball coach Skip Johnson was named the 2024 Central Region Coach of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association. The ABCA announced the ABCA/ATEC Regional Coaches of the Year on Tuesday. 

Under the direction of Johnson, Oklahoma won the program’s first Big 12 regular season championship, made its 41st NCAA Tournament appearance and hosted an NCAA Regional in Norman for the first time since 2010.

OU registered at least 40 wins for the second time in the last three seasons and 25th time in program history. En route to the Big 12 regular season title, OU swept a program record six conference series, tying the Big 12 record for sweeps in a season, and finished with a program record 23 wins in Big 12 play (23-7). OU’s 23 wins were good for the second most conference wins in Big 12 history.

OU was victorious in 23 of its final 30 games, including 14 of its last 16 conference games, with sweeps in four of the last six weekends.

In his seventh season at the helm, Johnson collected OU’s first Big 12 Coach of the Year honor while 12 Sooners were named All-Big 12, with three First Team accolades. Sophomore Easton Carmichael earned the program’s 67th All-America honor, slashing .366/.406/.563 with 93 hits, including 31 extra-base hits, 32 multi-hit games and 15-multi RBI games. 

Additionally, Johnson and the team energized the fan base, with numerous attendance records being set at L. Dale Mitchell Park in 2024. Three of the top four single game crowds in school history came through the gates, with a program single game record 4,812 in attendance April 26 for a win over Red River rival Texas. Sooner Nation also broke the single season attendance record with 60,962 fans attending regular season games at Mitchell Park in 2024 and a single game postseason record crowd of 4,332 for OU’s 14-0 regional-opening win over Oral Roberts.

The regional coach of the year honor is Johnson’s second in the last three seasons, also claiming the award in 2022 when he led the program to its 11th NCAA Men's College World Series appearance and a national runner-up finish in the MCWS Finals.

The  are selected by members of the ABCA All-America & Coach of the Year Committees in all nine divisions: NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA, NJCAA Divisions I, II and III, Pacific Association Division and high school.

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Randall Sweet

RANDALL SWEET

Randall is a recruiting analyst and staff writer at AllSooners focusing primarily on OU Football and the recruiting trail. Working as a journalist, Randall has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and high school sports across the state. A 2022 University of Oklahoma graduate, Randall hails from Lubbock, TX. While in college, Sweet wrote for the OU Daily in addition to working with Sooner Sports Pad and OU Nightly. Following his time at OU, Sweet served as the Communications Coordinator at Visit Oklahoma City before leaving to join the team at AllSooners. The West Texas native has bylines in the Norman Transcript and is a Staff Writer for Inside the Thunder. Randall holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. 

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