NORMAN — With just two series left in the regular season, No. 18 Oklahoma sits atop the Big 12 Conference standings.

At 29-17 on the year and 18-6 in conference play, the Sooners hold a three-game lead over heated rival Oklahoma State and will have the chance to host an NCAA Regional event if Skip Johnson’s team can close the year on a high note.

That opportunity will begin on Friday night, when the Baylor Bears travel to Norman for Game 1 of a three-game series between the two squads. The three home games will mark OU’s final regular season contests at L. Dale Mitchell Park this season.

At 6:30 p.m. CT on Friday, junior left hander Braden Davis will take the mound for the Sooners against Baylor right hander Mason Marriott to start the series. Davis has earned a win in his last four starts and has developed into Oklahoma’s ace as the 2024 campaign has progressed.

On Saturday, sophomore right hander Kyson Witherspoon is set to be on the bump for OU while sophomore left hander Ethan Calder is set to start for the Bears. Calder is one of Baylor’s top arms and has just a 2.91 ERA this season, but hasn’t gotten a win since March 19.

The former Lake Travis (TX) standout allowed four earned runs and eight hits in 6.2 innings pitched against TCU during his last outing as the Bears fell to the Horned Frogs.

Saturday’s contest will start at 4 p.m. CT, with a pregame jersey retirement celebration for legendary OU baseball coach Enos Semore taking place just before the game at 3:30.

Semore coached at Oklahoma from 1969-89, tallying over 850 wins in his nearly 20-year tenure as head coach. Under the Haskell County, OK, product, the Sooners made five consecutive College World Series appearances and won a program-record 62 games in 1976.

Semore also coached OU to seven Big Eight titles and was named the conference’s Coach of the Year in 1989. The accomplished coach was a 2005 American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee and will now see his jersey retired at L. Dale Mitchell Park.

Johnson, Oklahoma’s current head coach, said that he is looking forward to the event and is excited for his athletes to meet one of college baseball’s legendary figures.

“He was one of the icons,” Johnson said on Thursday. “It’s unbelievable, I’m kind of glad it happened under my watch. Is it long overdue? Probably so, but that’s not my choice. I’m excited from our standpoint so our kids can really see the man that built this program in their lifetime. We try to carry that torch, I know that I try to carry that torch about how he went about the business and how our kids act on a daily basis. Whether it’s getting on a plane, going into a restaurant, taking your hats off. Doing the things that that guy set the example for us a long time ago and then playing on the field, playing the game the right way.” 

The final outing of this weekend’s series between Oklahoma and Baylor will start at 2 p.m. CT on Sunday. This will be the Sooners’ final home game of the regular season and will serve as senior night, where players who are graduating this semester will be honored.

After sweeping Texas Tech in Lubbock last weekend, Johnson and company will look for their sixth series sweep of the season this weekend against Baylor. A sweep of the Bears would continue to build OU’s momentum with the postseason less than two weeks away.

Following their series against Baylor, Oklahoma will have just four regular season games left. The Sooners will travel to Xavier on May 14 for a matchup against the Musketeers before playing a three-game series against Cincinnati to close out the regular season.

The Oklahoma City Thunder can’t be undefeated forever.

In its first loss of the playoffs, the Thunder fell to the Dallas Mavericks 119-110. It was a tale of two vastly different offensive nights, with Oklahoma City failing to convert nearly as many 3-point opportunities.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continued his excellence from Game 1 of the series, dropping 33 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists, one steal and two blocks on 13-of-24 shooting. Even through questions of injury, his performances in the second round have been far more encouraging, truly leading the the Thunder as its superstar.

Jalen Williams provided a nice secondary option, recording 20 points, four rebounds and four assists. Although it was on an inefficient 7-of-17 night, he was the only other player who fully stepped up to the occasion outside of Gilgeous-Alexander.

Luka Doncic and P.J. Washington had equally fantastic performances to lead the Mavericks to victory, They combined for a whopping 58 points, 21 rebounds and 11 assists, a true show-stopping night for the pairing. Kyrie Irving could only muster up nine points, but his 11 assists showed impressive playmaking that proved important to the Dallas offense.

Oklahoma City began with a rough start, allowing a 13-2 deficit in the first three minutes of the contest. It soon embarked on a 7-0 run — which included a ridiculous block from Holmgren on Dereck Lively II — helping it quickly get back into the game.

Even with Doncic’s 16 points and a total of eight team 3-pointers, the Thunder still managed to stick with the Mavericks, only falling behind four points after the first quarter.

Once again Dallas went on an unanswered scoring run to open up the second quarter, this time being 9-0. The favor began to swing Oklahoma City’s way once again with a stretch of eight straight points from Gilgeous-Alexander, but it wasn’t enough to prevent a halftime deficit of six points.

Doncic and Washington combined for 37 of 68 Mavericks points, while Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams combined for 32 of 62 Thunder points — a fairly balanced duel between the top duos of the night.

The third quarter was another competitive one, but a lead still wasn’t in Oklahoma City’s sights. It was outscored 99-89 heading into the fourth quarter, making for a challenging deficit to come back from in the final 12 minutes of action.

The Thunder offense stumbled for much of the fourth, completely losing its ability from behind the arc. A couple of costly mistakes and missed opportunities prevented it from ever fully making a push at stealing a win, resulting in a series tie heading into Dallas on Saturday.

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NORMAN — After beginning his career as a relief pitcher at Sam Houston State, junior left hander Braden Davis has become Oklahoma’s ace.

This season, Davis is 6-3 in 12 outings and has developed into OU’s No. 1 option on the mound, earning the honor of being the Sooners coveted “Friday night pitcher”.

The former Bearkat has helped lead Skip Johnson’s team to the No. 18 spot in the country and a three-game lead atop the Big 12. With the postseason less than two weeks away, Davis finding his rhythm is important for Johnson and company.

“I think he’s got a good mentality, he’s very competitive, he’s in control of himself,” Johnson said Thursday. “He just started doing this, it’s not like he’s done it for three years. … Braden has had to learn a lot in a short period of time and that just tells you what his aptitude is like.” 

In addition to moving over 360 miles to Norman when he transferred from Sam Houston State, Davis also went from pitching out of the bullpen to a starting role. Despite big changes in his personal life and on the diamond, Davis has become a solid starting pitcher for the Sooners.

The Dallas-area product’s emergence is crucial for Oklahoma as the regular season winds down. While Johnson’s squad has been good in the batter’s box this year, they have struggled to find consistency on the mound.

Recently, Davis has started to find some consistency himself, picking up four consecutive wins. If the Sooners have a solid option on the bump with their impressive offensive ability, they could be primed for a run this summer.

Davis said that his switch from reliever to starting pitcher began over the summer, saying that the transition required a shift in his mindset as well.

“Summer ball, I was kind of transitioning as a starter and was trying to, like, pace myself,” Davis said. “I kind of figured out, there’s no point in pacing yourself. Just kind of, you know, try and blow your motor almost and see how far you can make it, and I mean, it’s kind of been paying off. I’ve been able to go six, seven innings, and I’ll hopefully get to that eight or nine mark at some point in the season.” 

Davis has thrown 65 innings for the Sooners, tallying 84 strikeouts and six wins heading into OU’s series against Baylor. The former Bearkat has allowed at least seven runs in each of his three losses, but hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any of his wins.

The Keller, TX, product has lasted at least six innings in seven different appearances this year after pitching a season-high 4 1/3 innings in 2023 at SHSU. He logged six or more innings in each of his last three outings en route to victories over BYU, Texas and Texas Tech.

Davis said part of his ability go deeper into games is finally getting control of his off-speed pitches after struggling at times earlier in the year.

“The changeup, I think it’s kind of been coming along, and then the breaking balls, for sure,” Davis said. “I kind of struggled with them early in the year, but I’ve kind of found my rhythm with those and it’s helped set up a lot of other stuff.” 

With his confidence continuing to grow, Davis could be a key piece of another run to the College World Series if Oklahoma draws a favorable pool at their regional event.

This weekend, the Sooners welcome the Baylor Bears to town for a three-game series that wraps up the regular season home schedule before next week’s finale at Cincinnati. Friday’s first pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.