No. 8 Sooners Meet LSU in Baton Rouge

Thursday, March 19

Baton Rouge, LA

7 p.m.

University of Oklahoma

LSU

March 18, 2026 | Baseball

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NORMAN – No. 8 OU (17-4, 2-1 SEC) plays its first SEC road series this weekend in Baton Rouge, La., vs. defending national champion LSU (15-7, 1-2).

The three-game series at Alex Box Stadium begins with a 7 p.m. CT Thursday game on ESPNU before a 6:30 p.m. start on Friday night and 2 p.m. finale on Saturday. Friday and Saturday's contests can be seen on SECN+. All three games can be heard on 99.3 FM/1400 AM The REF with Toby Rowland on the call.

THE BASICS

• The Sooners are coming off an SEC opening weekend series win over No. 23 Texas A&M last weekend prior to a 3-0 midweek loss Tuesday night at Southeastern Louisiana. It was the first time the Sooners have been shut out on the season.

• Versus A&M, OU took game one on Friday night before dropping the middle game on Saturday and taking the rubber match on Sunday. Brendan Brock paced OU with a pair of home runs while Jaxon Willits hit .714 in the series with 7 RBIs.

• Oklahoma made another rise in the ranks this week, moving to No. 8 in the D1Baseball Top 25 and ranking as high as No. 7 (Baseball America) across the five major polls. The Sooners are a consensus top-10 team in the country.

• On the season, OU is outscoring opponents 183-81 and the pitching staff has a team ERA of 3.60 with 223 strikeouts to 78 walks.

• The Sooners started the season with a program-record seven straight games scoring double digits and have scored 10+ runs in 10 of 21 games.

• OU ranks in the top 25 nationally in a number of categories including walks (6th, 142), runs (25th, 183), on-base percentage (16th, .442), stolen bases (3rd, 65), strikeouts per nine innings (15th, 11.5) and WHIP (23rd, 1.20).

OPPONENT OUTLOOK

• This weekend's series at Alex Box Stadium will be OU's first trip to LSU since a Super Regional matchup in 2013 that saw the Tigers beat the Sooners to advance to Omaha.

• A season ago in the teams' first series as conference foes, No. 7 LSU swept OU in Norman en route to the program's eighth national title.

• The 2026 Tigers enter the weekend at 15-7 and 1-2 in SEC play after dropping a conference openign series at Vanderbilt.

• After starting the season as the preseason No. 2, the Tigers fell out of the D1Baseball top 25 this week after being 13th a week ago.

• At the plate, outfielder Jake Brown paces the team with a .400 average and 11 home runs. On the bump, William Schmidt leads the staff with 39 strikeouts to seven walks to go with a 3.12 ERA.

BROCK NAMED SEC PLAYER OF THE WEEK

• After helping No. 8 Oklahoma to an SEC opening weekend series win over No. 23 Texas A&M, junior Brendan Brock was named the SEC Player of the Week.

• In OU's four games last week, two wins vs. A&M and a midweek victory over UT Arlington, Brock hit .444 with five extra-base hits, including two home runs, and eight RBIs. He homered in back to back games of the series vs. the Aggies and registered his first triple of the season.

• Of his eight hits last week, five of them brought in runs. Additionally, the transfer showed his versatility, making starts at catcher and in the outfield with 40 putouts and two assists to no errors, also stealing two bags on two attempts.

• On the year, Brock paces OU in hits (25), home runs (6), RBIs (26) and slugging (.680).

• The recognition is OU's first SEC Player of the Week honor as members of the conference. It is the third SEC weekly honor of the season after pitchers LJ Mercurius and Cord Rager collected Pitcher and Freshman of the Week, respectively, following opening weekend.

RECAPPING A&M SERIES WIN

• OU took a ranked SEC opening weekend series over then-No. 22 Texas A&M in Norman, beating the Aggies Friday and in the rubber match on Sunday.

• The Sooners improved to 17-3 on the season and 13-3 at Kimrey Family Stadium with Sunday's win. OU starts SEC play 2-1 and 1-0 in conference series. It marks the second straight season OU has opened conference play with a series win.

• It was OU's first conference win over A&M since beating them in a Big 12 series in 2010.

• OU moved to 3-1 in ranked matchups on the season.

• OU had an extra-base hit in all three contests, continuing its streak of an extra-base hit in every game of the season.

• On Sunday, the Sooner pitching staff struck out 12 batters, making the the 14th game of 20 this season that the staff has struck out 10-plus.

• OU's six-game win streak was snapped Saturday with the loss. LJ Mercurius gave up his first home run of the season. He entered the day allowing just three extra-base hits before allowing four in Saturday's loss.

• Friday's dramatic come-from-behind win was highlighted by back-to-back home runs from Brendan Brock and Jaxon Willits. It was the first consecutive homers for the Sooners since 2024.

• OU trailed 4-0 after the top half of the first on Friday, coming back to eventually tie the game on Willits' home run in the sixth. Dasan Harris had the go-ahead sacrifice fly in the eighth inning that would be the eventual game-winner.

ON THE BUMP

• A season after losing his weekend rotation to the draft, including Friday night starter and first-round pick Kyson Witherspoon, OU head coach and pitching guru Skip Johnson's retooled staff is off to an exceptional start on the bump.

• OU's weekend rotation of LHP junior Cameron Johnson, RHP junior LJ Mercurius and LHP freshman Cord Rager have combined for 103 strikeouts to 27 walks and 24 ER on the year.

• The Sooners' Friday night guy, Johnson, is 3-0 and has registered at least seven strikeouts in all five of his starts on the year and has two games with zero walks allowed.

• UNLV transfer LJ Mercurius who was a part of the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team this past summer, has transitioned smoothly to Oklahoma in his Saturday starter role. Mercurius has been one of the best pitchers in the country to start 2026, holding a 1.59 ERA with 41 strikeouts that ranks in the top 20 in the country.

• In Mercurius' OU debut on opening weekend vs. Oklahoma State, the righty fanned a career-high tying 12 batters while allowing just one run on three hits.

• Mercurius' 4-1 record in five starts ranks eighth in the nation for victories and the righty has one complete game, a seven-inning one-hitter vs. Gonzaga on Feb. 28.

• Sunday starter and freshman Cord Rager out of Maypearl, Texas, has 28 K's to just seven walks on the season with a 2-1 record.

• Along with the starting pitching, OU's bullpen has been stellar. Senior transfer Jackson Cleveland has taken on a closer role with three saves on the year to rank fourth in the SEC. The Miami transfer has eight appearances and has struck out 12 in his 11.1 innings. Sophomore transfer Kadyn Leon has made eight appearances and allowed two runs in 10.1 IP to go with 11 strikeouts and three walks.

• Junior Jason Bodin, who made 31 relief appearances in 2025 to rank second in the SEC, has made seven appearances in 2026 and ranks tied for second on the team with three victories (3-0). He has 16 strikeouts in 13.1 innings. He earned both wins in last weekend's series vs. Texas A&M.

• Seventeen arms have seen the mound for Coach Skip Johnson, with four pitchers outside the weekend rotation making at least one start.

• The staff's 3.60 team ERA ranks 30th in the country. The group's 1.20 WHIP ranks 23rd in the nation.

• The OU arms have already registered four shutouts in 2026, eclipsing the three total the team had in 2025.

IN THE BOX

• Through 21 games OU is outscoring the opposition 183-81 (8.7 runs/game). The offense is batting .306 with 75 extra-base hits to opponents' 43.

• All seventeen Sooners that have made a plate appearance this season has registered a hit.

• Junior Deiten Lachance paces OU with a .358 batting average. Six Sooners that have started at least 10 games are batting over .300 (Lachance, Trey Gambill, Jaxon Willits, Camden Johnson, Brendan Brock, Alec Blair). Brock leads OU with six home runs while Gambill has four long balls. Ten Sooners have combined for 23 blasts.

• The Sooners have homered in 13 of 21 games.

• OU ranks second in the SEC with eight triples so far on the season., good for 10th in the country.

• The team started the season with a program-record seven straight games scoring double digits and have scored 10+ runs in 10 of 21 games.

• Plate discipline has been key to the OU offense as the Sooners rank sixth in the country and first in the SEC in walks drawn with 142. Six Sooners have recorded 10-plus walks, led by senior Gambill's 17 and Willits' and Lachance's 16.

RANKINGS CHATTER

• After the SEC series win over A&M last weekend, the Sooners climbed one spot to No. 8 in this week's D1Baseball top 25 and as high as No. 7 in the Baseball America poll. Perfect Game, NCBWA and the USA TODAY Coaches Poll all rank the team eighth.

• OU is 3-1 in ranked matchups following its two wins over top-25 Texas A&M and takedown of then-No. 10 TCU on Opening Weekend. A season ago, OU went 11-15 in ranked matchups.