5/29/2023 baseball Edit

OU Baseball: Sooners receive at-large bid to the 2023 NCAA Tournament

Hayden Farrar • OUInsider

Intern

The Oklahoma Sooners will head to very familiar territory for postseason play. The Sooners learned Monday morning that they will travel to Charlottesville, Virginia, to play in the Charlottesville Regional. This will be Oklahoma’s fifth trip to the Old Dominion in the last 13 years in postseason play. Most recently, the Sooners took down Virginia Tech in the Super Regionals in 2022 to punch their ticket to Omaha.

Oklahoma is making its 40th appearance in an NCAA Regional, and second straight after earning a No. 2 seed in the Gainesville Regional in 2022. The Sooners have 11 College World Series appearances and two national championships in 1951 and 1994.

Oklahoma (31-26) earned a No. 3 seed in the Charlottesville Regional after going 1-2 in the Big 12 Tournament in Arlington. The Sooners dropped a game to Texas Tech and went 1-1 against No. 11 Oklahoma State — who will now host the Stillwater Regional — as its final statement to the committee.

I projected the Sooners to be the first team left out of the NCAA Tournament field. However, the Sooners joined Arizona, Louisiana, and Troy as part of the “Last Four In” while Arizona State, Kent State, UC Irvine, and fellow Big 12 foe Kansas State were part of the “First Four Out” of the NCAA Tournament field.

Skip Johnson and the Sooners were selected for the NCAA Tournament despite an underwhelming 12-15 aggregate conference record. However, the Sooners had an impressive No. 40 RPI and No. 16 SOS, which boosted them into the NCAA Tournament field. Oklahoma had many signature wins including two wins against now No. 8 overall seed Stanford, two wins against No. 11 Oklahoma State, and a road sweep of the Texas Longhorns — who earned a No. 2 seed in the Coral Gables Regional.

Oklahoma will head to the Charlottesville Regional hosted by No. 7 overall seed Virginia (45-12) along with No. 4 seed Army (38-16) and No. 2 seed East Carolina (45-17). The Sooners will clash with the East Carolina Pirates out of the American Athletic Conference for a 6:00 PM first pitch inside Ted Davenport Field at Disharoon Park in Charlottesville.