NORMAN — On Friday night, Northwest Florida State College transfer Kyson Witherspoon made his first appearance in the NCAA Tournament, starting for Oklahoma against Oral Roberts.

Witherspoon and the Sooners’ easily took care of the Golden Eagles, notching a commanding 14-0 victory behind an excellent outing from the sophomore right hander and a barrage of extra base hits from OU’s offense.

Head coach Skip Johnson announcing Witherspoon as the starter on Thursday afternoon came as a bit of a surprise, as junior left hander Braden Davis has served as OU’s Friday night starter over the back half of the season.

Johnson’s decision ended up paying off, however, as Witherspoon threw six innings, striking out nine batters and allowing just one hit and zero runs. In addition to the Jacksonville, FL, product’s masterful performance, the Sooners will also have Davis available for their Saturday night contest against Connecticut, who defeated Duke 4-1 on Friday afternoon.

While ORU struggled to hit Witherspoon from the first pitch, the talented sophomore struggled to control his pitches early on, walking five batters in the first three innings. Despite putting at least two runners on base in each of the first three innings, Witherspoon was able to use his fastball to get out of the jam each time.

“Credit to (Witherspoon), man, we had a lot of traffic those first three innings,” Oral Roberts head coach Ryan Folmar said after the game. “We needed that one swing, I thought we were a swing or two away from getting in the bullpen early. After the third inning, he settled in, found the zone a lot more. The slider was really good, he’s able to command it. Again, when you talk about opportunities, we had plenty of them early, and we couldn’t take advantage of those.”

Oral Roberts left seven runners on base in the the first three innings alone, as Witherspoon tallied five strikeouts in the same span to keep the Golden Eagles off the scoreboard.

As Folmar mentioned, Witherspoon settled in during the fourth inning, gaining more command on the mound and closing out his final three innings with zero hits, zero walks and four strikeouts. Nine strikeouts is Witherspoon’s second highest total of the season and his six innings on the mound mark the transfer pitcher’s fourth time throwing six or more innings this year.

“Hopefully I can keep settling in a lot earlier than that,” Witherspoon said. “Just at the beginning, trying to do a little bit too much with my pitches. Trying to work around the zone too much and just got to execute my pitches. Throw it, let them work, and that’s what I did at the end.” 

Johnson commended his pitcher’s gutsy performance, saying that Folmar was correct in assuming OU would have turned to its bullpen had the Golden Eagles been able to get their bats going early on. With Witherspoon able to get multiple key strikeouts whenever ORU put runners in scoring position, however, the Sooners’ head ball coach didn’t have to bring in a reliever until the seventh inning.

“It could’ve went either way, and that’s the thing about baseball,” Johnson said. “They really separated balls from strikes, took their walks when they needed to, but (Witherspoon) made big pitches with two outs. He had two big punch outs with men on base. I mean, (Folmar) is exactly right, but (Witherspoon) made the difference when he settled in and located a couple pitches with two strikes to get him out of the inning, which was really huge. He did it last week in Arlington (at the Big 12 Tournament) and it shows you how big his heart is, because you pitch with your head and your heart. You know, his stuff is his stuff, what’s going to get him to the next level is going to be his heart.” 

With runners on second and third in the first inning, Witherspoon recorded a massive strikeout to end the at-bat. In the second, ORU loaded the bases, but Witherspoon struck out Elijah Rodriguez to once again escape the jam unscathed.

Oral Roberts was able to get runners on first and second base in the third inning before Witherspoon slammed the door shut on the Golden Eagles for a third time, striking out Cameron LaLiberte to kill ORU’s scoring chances.

Witherspoon’s impressive outing in his first-ever NCAA Tournament game is a good sign for OU, who has been solid on offense all year, but struggled at times on the mound. If Davis and Witherspoon are both able to raise to the occasion and perform well in the postseason, Oklahoma will have a chance to not only win the Norman Regional, but advance to Omaha for the second time in three years.

Next up, Oklahoma is set to face Connecticut at 8 p.m. on Saturday night from L. Dale Mitchell Park. With Witherspoon throwing over 100 pitches on Friday night, Davis, who has developed into the team’s ace, should start on the bump against the Huskies.

TEXAS (KXII) – Texas and Oklahoma will kick off June by hosting free fishing days over the weekend.

On Saturday, Texas will host its Free Fishing Day, which allows anyone to fish on any public waterways in the state without needing a license.

“Free Fishing Day is an annual event that encourages Texans to get outdoors, enjoy nature, and go fishing with family and friends,” said Tim Birdsong the Director of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Inland Fisheries Division. “Our hope is that experienced anglers will use this opportunity to take others fishing and share their knowledge, skills, equipment, and love of the sport.”

Oklahoma’s free fishing days will be Saturday and Sunday, and anyone will be able fish without a license.

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation noted that some city permits may still be required, and anglers fishing for paddlefish will still need a free paddlefish permit.

Beginner anglers can learn more about fishing here, and anyone interested in learning more about Free Fishing Day in Texas can do so here.

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Check out the long-awaited first trailer for the upcoming movie “Reagan,” which was filmed primarily in Oklahoma.

Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, the almost three-minute preview for the biopic of the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan gives viewers several looks at the movie’s stars, Dennis Quaid, Jon Voight and Penelope Ann Miller.

But it also offers sneak peeks of Oklahoma talents Rachel Cannon, who plays a housewife who can’t place Ron and Nancy Reagan when they visit her house on the campaign trail, and Darci Lynne, who appears as a damsel in distress rescued by the future president (David Henrie) during his teenage stint as a lifeguard.

“I was a lifeguard on a river, and I learned how to read the currents: not just the ones on the surface, but also the ones deep underneath the water,” Reagan says in the trailer, which draws parallels between his impressive run saving swimmers to his way of spotting potential geopolitical conflicts as president.

When and where in Oklahoma was the movie ‘Reagan’ filmed?

Due in theaters this summer, the biographical drama about America’s 40th president began filming in the Oklahoma City and Guthrie areas in September 2020. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oklahoma was one of the few states where filming on movies like “Reagan” could continue.

The production was headquartered in Guthrie, with filming centered at the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple. In the trailer, viewers can get a glimpse at how the historic building stood in for the Oval Office at the White House, the fabled Cocoanut Grove supper club in Hollywood and even some locales in Cold War Russia.

Although the production was forced to shut down twice due to COVID, the project, which used the state’s film rebate, created 1,966 local jobs and generated $16.6 million in direct spending in fall 2020, according to the Oklahoma Film + Music Office.

The production moved to California in early 2021 to film at Reagan’s Rancho Del Cielo ranch outside of Santa Barbara. It returned to Guthrie in summer 2021 to shoot additional footage, including outdoor water sequences from the president’s youth, as well as John Hinckley Jr.’s 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan, which are both featured in the trailer.

Filming also took place on Air Force One, according to a news release.

Reagan served two terms as president, from 1981 to 1989, and died on June 5, 2004, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Who sings ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ in the ‘Reagan’ trailer?

Directed by Sean McNamara (“Soul Surfer,” “The Miracle Season”), the biopic follows Ronald Reagan’s life from his childhood in Dixon, Illinois, to his acting career in Hollywood, to the U.S. presidency and the world stage.

The first trailer shows a sampling of all those different time frames, set to a pensive cover of Tears for Fears’ familiar 1980s hit “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”

Independent California singer-songwriter Molly Jenson recorded the moody cover.

Who stars in ‘Reagan’ and how much of Ronald Reagan’s life does the movie cover?

Quaid, who has made at least three movies in Oklahoma with “Reagan,” 2018’s “I Can Only Imagine” and 2021’s “American Underdog,” portrays Reagan as an adult. Tommy Ragen (“Mighty Oak,” the musical “School of Rock”) and Henrie (“Wizards of Waverly Place”) play Reagan as a boy and as a young man, respectively.

Voight (“Deliverance,” “Coming Home”) co-stars as Viktor Petrovich, a fictional KGB agent who trails Reagan throughout his political career. “Reagan” begins as 90-year-old Petrovich — a composite character based on real people — is visited by an up-and-coming Russian leader who wants to know how the Soviet Union was lost.

The spy who knows everything there is to know about Reagan recounts the tale of his adversary — the man he mockingly nicknamed “The Crusader” — beginning in 1922, when 11-year-old Ronald Reagan faces the first crisis of his eventful life.

Along with providing film fans with a look at the three actors playing the title role as well as Voight as his nemesis, the trailer gives glimpses of Miller as Reagan’s first lady, Nancy Reagan; Mena Suvari as Reagan’s first wife, Jane Wyman; Olek Krupa as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev; and Kevin Dillon as Warner Bros. co-founder Jack Warner.

“Reagan” is inspired by Paul Kengor’s book “The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism” and written by Howard Klausner (“Space Cowboys”) and Jonas McCord (“Ask the Dust”).

Which Oklahoma studio helped with de-aging effects for ‘Reagan?’

Producer Mark Joseph told The Oklahoman in an autumn 2022 email that the film’s extensive post-production — especially de-aging special effects for Quaid and Voight — would mean a long wait for “Reagan” to arrive in theaters.

Along with filming in Oklahoma, the makers of “Reagan” also tapped into the Sooner State’s resources for post-production: The Oklahoma City film studio, production house and advertising agency Boiling Point provided visual effects work on the biopic. Several of Boiling Points’ ‘VFX shots appear in the trailer, The Oklahoman has confirmed.

When is the movie ‘Reagan’ coming to theaters?

“Reagan” is due to open Aug. 30 in movie theaters nationwide.

Advance group tickets are now available for groups of 50 people or more. For information, go to https://www.reaganmovie.com.