NORMAN — Just two years removed from a miraculous run to the College World Series in 2022, Oklahoma has the chance to make it back to Omaha in 2024.
After winning the Big 12 regular season title and advancing to the championship game at the Big 12 Tournament, the Sooners will host an NCAA Regional for the first time in 14 years this weekend with Oral Roberts, Duke and Connecticut coming to Norman.
While most of the players from Skip Johnson's last World Series team are no longer on the Sooners' roster, there are a handful of veterans on the squad who have helped OU find success again this year. According to OU's head coach, these veterans have helped build a strong mentality in the locker room reminiscent of Oklahoma's 2022 team that advanced all the way to the championship series in Omaha.
“I think the mentality is a lot alike (the 2022 team), I think how they care about each other is a lot alike,” Johnson said on Thursday. “But it’s a different team. (John Spikerman) is three years older, (Jackson Nicklaus) is three years older, (Kendall Pettis) is three years older, and those guys, you know, they’ve been our leaders for most of the year. … You can have the best players in the world, if they don’t have the right attitude, they’re not ever going to be any good. I think these guys have the right attitude to keep playing.”
Spikerman, the Sooners' star center fielder, has had one of the biggest impacts on the team both on the field and as a leader. This year, the junior has notched a .386 batting average, 1.012 OPS and .566 slugging percentage while tallying 30 RBIs, three home runs and 11 stolen bases.
Earlier this month, Spikerman was named Big 12 Player of the Week after an outstanding performance in Oklahoma's series against Baylor.
As a sophom*ore in 2023, Spikerman was an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention selection, helping lead OU to an NCAA Regional berth. In Charlottesville, however, the Sooners dropped two of their three games and were ousted from the NCAA Tournament after the first weekend.
According to Spikerman, OU's locker room didn't have the same mentality in 2023 as it had during Oklahoma's remarkable 2022 run. With many of the team's veterans from their championship appearance leaving for the MLB Draft after the 2022 season, the holdovers from that year were thrust into a leadership role for the first time in their young careers.
“I got asked about expectations a second ago, as far as leadership goes, you’ve got to carry yourself in a bit of a different way,” Spikerman said. “Last year, dealt with some attitude issues and leadership problems, and this year being able to deal with adversity better and to carry yourself in a way that the younger guys can see and really follow. That’s been really important.”
This year, however, the Sooners seem to have better leadership, as players like Spikerman have stepped up and helped take some of the younger players on the team under their wing. Additionally, the group has a handful of transfers who received valuable experience at their previous school.
With talented veteran players in the locker room who have had a taste of postseason baseball, Oklahoma has once again found its rhythm, just like it did towards the end of the 2022 season. With good leadership and a selfless attitude amongst the team, Spikerman said that he has begun to see similarities between the OU's 2022 and 2024 units.
“I think you’ve got a group that loves to play the game and loves to play with each other again," Spikerman said. "That makes it a lot easier to perform well, when guys are playing for the guy next to them and not for themselves. You know, Skip always talks about playing with an edge and I think that’s something that 2022 team brought and something that this team is continuing to bring. We’re similar in that aspect, and obviously pretty talented as well.”
If OU continues to produce on offense and is able to get good outings from Braden Davis and Kyson Witherspoon on the mound, Johnson's team could advance past the Norman Regional into the NCAA Super Regionals.
Oklahoma's first game of the Norman Regional will be against Oral Roberts, who made their way to Omaha in 2023, at 6 p.m. Friday at L. Dale Mitchell Park.
