Norman, OK – The West Virginia Mountaineers are on the road this weekend in a crucial three-game series versus the Oklahoma Sooners with game one set for Friday at 7:30 pm EST. Game two is scheduled for Saturday at 3:00 pm and the series finale is Sunday with the first pitch set for 1:00 pm. The Friday and Sunday games will be televised via SoonerSports.tv and the Saturday game will be televised on Bally Sports Oklahoma.
The Sooners come into the weekend a game ahead of the Mountaineers in the Big 12 Conference standings and tied with Texas Tech for third place. OU and Tech square off next weekend.
The Sooners have won three straight Big 12 Conference series, including winning back-to-back games at TCU last weekend coming into the home series finale against the Mountaineers. They rank 24th in Baseball America and have an RPI rating of 31.
During conference play, Oklahoma leads the league in triples (5), on base percentage (.429), stolen bases (38), and runs (166) and is second in doubles (50), batting average (.298), and RBIs (143). Blake Robertson is hitting a team best .422 at the plate in Big 12 action with a league-leading 11 doubles. Clark Wallace sits behind Robertson at third with a batting average of .396 while Peyton Graham leads the Big 12 with 33 RBIs.
Meanwhile, West Virginia is coming off a 9-1 win over rival Pitt Tuesday night after a series salvaging win over Texas over the weekend. The Mountaineers sit 36th in the RPI.
The Mountaineers have swiped a Big 12 best and a WVU record 143 stolen bases on the season with Victor Scott leading the way with a program-best and a conference-leading 36 stolen bases. Additionally, Scott also leads the team in RBIs with 43. Austin Davis comes in second with 26. Davis leads the team, and is seventh in the Big 12, with a .371 batting average during conference play.
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McGwire Holbrook is averaging a team-leading .366 at the plate this season for the Mountaineers and has registered a hit in 10 out of the last 11 games while Freshman Grant Hussey has clubbed a team-leading nine home runs.
West Virginia is expected to start junior right-hander Jacob Watters (2-5, 5.33 ERA) in the series opener, sophomore righty Ben Hampton (6-4, 4.66 ERA) in game two but has not announced a game three starter. Oklahoma is likely to counter with redshirt-sophomore lefty Jake Bennet (4-3, 3.97 ERA) in the series opener, then the right hander David Sandlin (5-2, 5.58 ERA) in game two, and redshirt freshman right-hander Cade Horton (2-1, 3.86) in the series finale.
Oklahoma leads the all-time series 16-12 – eight of the wins have come in the last 11 meetings. WVU is 6-3 all-time at Oklahoma with the only series win in Norman coming in 2014.
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