Oklahoma (19-12, 3-3) opens a three-game set with Kansas Thursday night in Norman. This weekend's series is Thursday-Saturday with the Easter holiday on deck Sunday.
Below is a short recap from Tuesday nights 7-0 victory over Central Arkansas.
*******************************************************************************************
It felt like deja vu.
Top of the first and the bases were loaded. Adam Choplick was in trouble, and his head coach was walking towards him for a visit. Last time out, this same kind of meeting on the mound resulted in Choplick's shortest outing of his career.
Was Hughes bringing the hook? Not this time.
"That did cross through my mind," said Choplick. "(Hughes) just said, 'hey calm down. Keep having fun. Go out there and keep throwing strikes and we'll be fine'."
That hasn't always been so easy. First inning jitters have been aplenty. Even for a redshirt junior like Choplick. He handled a dribbler in front of the mound and flipped to catcher Chris Shaw for the second out of the inning.
Then a strikeout. He was onto something. Relief for Choplick. Even more for Hughes.
"He makes a great defensive play and then he gets a punch out and then he gets settled in," Hughes said. "That's hard to get through where he was mentally out there. Just battling. I'm happy for Adam. He pitched a good game and that will make our staff even deeper."
Choplick matched a career-high in strikeouts with 10 across six innings of shutout-work. He allowed just three hits and the two walks in the first.
Juniors Kolbey Carpenter and Chris Shaw provided the power in a 7-0 shutout for Oklahoma over Central Arkansas. After not hitting a home run in 10 days as a team, Carpenter, the OU second baseman, got the scoring started with a one-out jack to left in the bottom of the third for his team-leading sixth of the season. The scoring continued as redshirt-senior right fielder Taylor Alspaugh doubled and scored on an error. Junior first baseman Anthony Hermelyn then delivered junior center fielder Craig Aikin (Coppell, Texas) to the plate, from second, with a single to center field.
"There's nothing like offense to relax everybody and that's what we got," Hughes said. "We've got to get (Carpenter) hot again. That'll be good especially at the top of the order and Hermelyn is swinging it again so that'll be crucial if those guys can stay hot for the rest of the weekend."
-- Choplick was the 16th Oklahoma starter to work into the 6th inning
-- The Sooner pitching staff has combined for 10 or more strikeouts in a game 18 times this season.
Wise Returns to Line-up
Alex Wise returned to the line up last weekend in Waco after missing just over a month with broken wrist. In the top of the first we saw the spark that he brings to the line-up, tagging up on a fly ball to centerfield advancing himself into scoring position.
How important was it to get him back in the line-up?
"A ton. Like the tag up play in the first. He gets to second base on a fly ball tag to center and gets himself into scoring position. Not all of our guys will do that," Hughes said. "He's always looking to make an aggressive play. He sets the ton."
While his return has been welcomed. Getting on-base has been tricky, with Wise going 4-for-16 at the plate over his last four. Something Hughes hopes changes as he gets more comfortable.
"We've just got to get him a couple more at-bats so he can be comfortable. He's not very comfortable in there right now but he's a different dude. And he makes our offense different, he brings a lot of life to the line-up."
About Kansas:
Gaining his 400th win at Kansas earlier in the season against Michigan, head coach Ritch Price and the Jayhawks are 10-17 overall and 1-2 in conference. Outfielder Connor McKay leads the team with 19 runs scored and 40 hits, while hitting .364. In the power department, fellow outfielder Blair Beck has hit five home runs with a .584 slugging percentage. Opening up the action on Thursday, KU turns to left-hander Ben Krauth (5-2), who sports a 5.44 ERA.
* Notables ...
-- Corey Copping will be out for the foreseeable future after having an appendectomy last week. Rather strange as you'll remember Drew Krittenbrink underwent the same procedure around this time a season ago. Luckily for Copping they caught it early this time around and his appendix didn't burst.
"It's unbelievable isn't it? If we get another one there's got to be an investigation with how we're prepping our pitching staff," said Hughes. "He got his appendix out at 10 o'clock at night and left the hospital the next morning at 10. It's an unbelievable turnaround. I think probably 10 days and he'll be able to start throwing the ball again."
Copping was in attendance Tuesday night at L. Dale Mitchell and is doing fine after the emergency surgery
TV/RADIO
TV: FSSW+/FCSA (Thursday)
FCSP (Friday)
FSSW+/FCSA (Saturday)
Chad McKee | George Frazier
1400 KREF | 1560 AM
Toby Rowland | Chris Plank
This post was edited on 4/2 4:28 PM by Eddie_Rado
Below is a short recap from Tuesday nights 7-0 victory over Central Arkansas.
*******************************************************************************************
It felt like deja vu.
Top of the first and the bases were loaded. Adam Choplick was in trouble, and his head coach was walking towards him for a visit. Last time out, this same kind of meeting on the mound resulted in Choplick's shortest outing of his career.
Was Hughes bringing the hook? Not this time.
"That did cross through my mind," said Choplick. "(Hughes) just said, 'hey calm down. Keep having fun. Go out there and keep throwing strikes and we'll be fine'."
That hasn't always been so easy. First inning jitters have been aplenty. Even for a redshirt junior like Choplick. He handled a dribbler in front of the mound and flipped to catcher Chris Shaw for the second out of the inning.
Then a strikeout. He was onto something. Relief for Choplick. Even more for Hughes.
"He makes a great defensive play and then he gets a punch out and then he gets settled in," Hughes said. "That's hard to get through where he was mentally out there. Just battling. I'm happy for Adam. He pitched a good game and that will make our staff even deeper."
Choplick matched a career-high in strikeouts with 10 across six innings of shutout-work. He allowed just three hits and the two walks in the first.
Juniors Kolbey Carpenter and Chris Shaw provided the power in a 7-0 shutout for Oklahoma over Central Arkansas. After not hitting a home run in 10 days as a team, Carpenter, the OU second baseman, got the scoring started with a one-out jack to left in the bottom of the third for his team-leading sixth of the season. The scoring continued as redshirt-senior right fielder Taylor Alspaugh doubled and scored on an error. Junior first baseman Anthony Hermelyn then delivered junior center fielder Craig Aikin (Coppell, Texas) to the plate, from second, with a single to center field.
"There's nothing like offense to relax everybody and that's what we got," Hughes said. "We've got to get (Carpenter) hot again. That'll be good especially at the top of the order and Hermelyn is swinging it again so that'll be crucial if those guys can stay hot for the rest of the weekend."
-- Choplick was the 16th Oklahoma starter to work into the 6th inning
-- The Sooner pitching staff has combined for 10 or more strikeouts in a game 18 times this season.
Wise Returns to Line-up
Alex Wise returned to the line up last weekend in Waco after missing just over a month with broken wrist. In the top of the first we saw the spark that he brings to the line-up, tagging up on a fly ball to centerfield advancing himself into scoring position.
How important was it to get him back in the line-up?
"A ton. Like the tag up play in the first. He gets to second base on a fly ball tag to center and gets himself into scoring position. Not all of our guys will do that," Hughes said. "He's always looking to make an aggressive play. He sets the ton."
While his return has been welcomed. Getting on-base has been tricky, with Wise going 4-for-16 at the plate over his last four. Something Hughes hopes changes as he gets more comfortable.
"We've just got to get him a couple more at-bats so he can be comfortable. He's not very comfortable in there right now but he's a different dude. And he makes our offense different, he brings a lot of life to the line-up."
About Kansas:
Gaining his 400th win at Kansas earlier in the season against Michigan, head coach Ritch Price and the Jayhawks are 10-17 overall and 1-2 in conference. Outfielder Connor McKay leads the team with 19 runs scored and 40 hits, while hitting .364. In the power department, fellow outfielder Blair Beck has hit five home runs with a .584 slugging percentage. Opening up the action on Thursday, KU turns to left-hander Ben Krauth (5-2), who sports a 5.44 ERA.
* Notables ...
-- Corey Copping will be out for the foreseeable future after having an appendectomy last week. Rather strange as you'll remember Drew Krittenbrink underwent the same procedure around this time a season ago. Luckily for Copping they caught it early this time around and his appendix didn't burst.
"It's unbelievable isn't it? If we get another one there's got to be an investigation with how we're prepping our pitching staff," said Hughes. "He got his appendix out at 10 o'clock at night and left the hospital the next morning at 10. It's an unbelievable turnaround. I think probably 10 days and he'll be able to start throwing the ball again."
Copping was in attendance Tuesday night at L. Dale Mitchell and is doing fine after the emergency surgery
TV/RADIO
TV: FSSW+/FCSA (Thursday)
FCSP (Friday)
FSSW+/FCSA (Saturday)
Chad McKee | George Frazier
1400 KREF | 1560 AM
Toby Rowland | Chris Plank
This post was edited on 4/2 4:28 PM by Eddie_Rado
