Baseball Meets DBU in Dallas Monday Night

NORMAN – No. 16 OU (21-10, 5-7 SEC) hits the road for a Monday contest at 6:30 p.m. CT at Dallas Baptist (18-14, 8-4 C-USA).

The matchup at Horner Ballpark can be seen via ESPN+ and heard on the radio via The REF 99.3 FM/1400 AM with Chad McKee on the call.

THE BASICS

• The Sooners enter the contest at 21-10 following a series loss to No. 8 Alabama. After a 10-7 loss Thursday night, OU forced the rubber match with a 4-2 win on Friday, but fell in the Saturday series decider, 3-2.

• OU is 5-2 in midweek matchups on the year, most recently shutting out Oral Roberts last Tuesday in Tulsa. The Sooners took the first matchup over DBU this season, 2-0, in Norman on March 3.

• Projected Starting Pitchers: OU RHP Michael Catalano vs. DBU LHP Aiden VanDeHatert.

• Oklahoma is ranked at No. 16 in this week's D1Baseball Top 25 and rank in the top 25 in four of five major polls.

• On the season, OU is outscoring opponents 216-131 and the pitching staff has a team ERA of 3.95 with 316 strikeouts to 130 walks.

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

• OU ranks in the top 30 nationally in a number of categories including ERA (25th, 3.95) double plays (26th, 26), stolen bases (18th, 75), strikeouts per nine innings (20th, 10.8) and hits allowed per nine innings (12th, 7.2).

OPPONENT OUTLOOK

• The Sooners meet the Patriots for the second and final time this season Monday night. OU leads the all-time series 27-20 over the Patriots dating back to the first meeting in 1978.

• OU beat DBU 2-0 in Norman in the first matchup, powered by a combined shutout by eight OU pitchers.

• It was OU's first win over the Patriots since 2023 and the shutout was OU's first vs. DBU since 2010.

• Deiten Lachance provided the two RBIs for the Sooners via single and sacrifice fly.

• The last meeting between the teams in Dallas a season ago was an 11-0 DBU win in seven innings.

• The Patriots are paced at the plate by senior Jake Bennett, batting .372 with 11 home runs and 31 RBIs. As a team, DBU is batting .293 with 62 home runs.

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 RHP junior LJ Mercurius, LHP junior Cameron Johnson and LHP freshman Cord Rager have combined for 136 strikeouts to 51 walks and 49 ER on the year.

• 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 starter role, holding a 5.11 ERA with 49 strikeouts.

• 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 is 5-3 on the year and the righty has one complete game, a seven-inning one-hitter vs. Gonzaga on Feb. 28.

• Johnson is 4-1 and has registered at least seven strikeouts in six of his eight starts on the year and has two appearances with zero walks allowed. The lefty leads OU with 52 strikeouts.

• Sunday starter and freshman Cord Rager out of Maypearl, Texas, has 35 K's to 13 walks on the season with a 2-1 record.

• Along with the starting pitching, OU's bullpen has been impactful. Senior transfer Jackson Cleveland has taken on a closer role with four saves on the year to rank third in the SEC. The Miami transfer has 12 appearances and has struck out 17 in his 18.2 innings. Sophomore transfer Kadyn Leon has made 13 appearances and allowed four runs in 18.0 IP to go with 19 strikeouts.

• Junior Jason Bodin, who made 31 relief appearances in 2025 to rank second in the SEC, has made 11 appearances in 2026 and ranks third on the team with three victories (3-0). He has 24 strikeouts in 17.2 innings.

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

• The staff's 3.95 team ERA ranks 25th in the country. The group's 1.30 WHIP ranks 38th in the nation.

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

AT THE PLATE

• Through 31 games OU is outscoring the opposition 216-131 (7.0 runs/game). The offense is batting .278 with 93 extra-base hits to opponents' 65.

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

• Junior Jaxon Willits paces the starters with a .323 batting average, while Trey Gambill is batting .306. Junior Brendan Brock leads OU with seven home runs while Gambill has five long balls. Ten Sooners have combined for 28 blasts.

• The Sooners have homered in 16 of 31 games.

• OU ranks third in the SEC with nine triples on the season, good for 41st 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 games.

• Plate discipline has been key to the OU offense as the Sooners rank 37th in the country and eighth in the SEC in walks drawn with 174. Seven Sooners have recorded 10-plus walks, led by Gambill's 26.

RANKINGS CHATTER

• The Sooners come in at No. 16 in this week's D1Baseball top 25 and rank in the top 25 in four of five major polls (D1, Baseball America, NCBWA and the USA TODAY Coaches Poll).

• OU is 4-6 in ranked matchups in 2026 with two wins over top-25 Texas A&M, one over No. 16 Alabama and takedown of then-No. 10 TCU on Opening Weekend. A season ago, OU went 11-15 in ranked matchups.

RECAPPING ALABAMA SERIES

• OU suffered its second SEC series loss this past weekend at the hands of No. 16 Alabama.

• The Sooners dropped the opener 10-7 after a comeback attempt fell short with the tying run on deck in the ninth. OU trailed 10-1 through two innings and scored the game's final six runs.

• OU bounced back with a 4-2 win in Friday's game two behind an exceptional performance from starting LHP Cameron Johnson. The lefty went a career long six innings and struck out eight, his third start of the season with at least eight K's.

• In the series decider, a three-run first inning from the Crimson Tide proved to be enough, beating the Sooners 3-2. OU scraped single runs across in the first and fifth innings and had the tying run in scoring position in two of the final three innings, but couldn't pull even.

UP NEXT

• The Sooners return to SEC play this Thursday through Saturday at Vanderbilt (19-14, 6-6 SEC) in Nashville, just the second time OU has made the trip to Nashville.

• Season and single game tickets for the 2026 season at Kimrey Family Stadium are available now on SoonerSports.com/tickets. For more information about Oklahoma baseball tickets, contact the OU Athletics Ticket Office at 405-325-2424, by email at outickets@ou.edu or by visiting SoonerSports.com/tickets.

For updates and more information on Oklahoma baseball, follow the Sooners on X and Instagram (@OU_Baseball) and like Oklahoma Baseball on Facebook.