Oklahoma
OU Baseball: Oklahoma Pitcher Kyson Witherspoon Shuts Down ORU in Regional Opener
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.
Charlotte Hornets (12-23, 12th in the Eastern Conference) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (30-6, first in the Western Conference)
Oklahoma City; Monday, 8 p.m. EST
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Thunder -15.5; over/under is 232.5
BOTTOM LINE: Oklahoma City hosts Charlotte looking to continue its three-game home winning streak.
The Thunder have gone 17-2 at home. Oklahoma City scores 121.9 points while outscoring opponents by 14.7 points per game.
The Hornets have gone 5-13 away from home. Charlotte ranks fourth in the league averaging 15.1 made 3-pointers per game while shooting 36.7% from downtown. Kon Knueppel leads the team averaging 3.6 makes while shooting 42.8% from 3-point range.
The Thunder’s 13.6 made 3-pointers per game this season are the same per game average that the Hornets allow. The Hornets are shooting 45.6% from the field, 2.5% higher than the 43.1% the Thunder’s opponents have shot this season.
The teams square off for the second time this season. The Thunder won 109-96 in the last meeting on Nov. 16. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 33 points, and Miles Bridges led the Hornets with 15 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Chet Holmgren is averaging 18.2 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks for the Thunder. Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 25.0 points over the last 10 games.
Bridges is averaging 20.2 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists for the Hornets. Brandon Miller is averaging 4.0 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Thunder: 6-4, averaging 118.9 points, 42.5 rebounds, 24.7 assists, 9.9 steals and 5.7 blocks per game while shooting 48.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 109.3 points per game.
Hornets: 5-5, averaging 118.7 points, 45.6 rebounds, 28.8 assists, 7.6 steals and 4.2 blocks per game while shooting 45.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 117.8 points.
INJURIES: Thunder: Nikola Topic: out (groin), Thomas Sorber: out for season (knee), Ousmane Dieng: out (calf), Jaylin Williams: out (heel), Isaiah Hartenstein: out (calf).
Hornets: Mason Plumlee: out (groin), Grant Williams: out (acl), Ryan Kalkbrenner: day to day (elbow), Tidjane Salaun: day to day (ankle), Moussa Diabate: day to day (wrist).
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
PORTAL TRACKER
Oklahoma State’s newly constructed staff got on the board Saturday, picking up portal commitments on offense and special special teams, so how about some defense?
Three Big 12 defenders have been linked with Oklahoma State via the transfer portal over the past few days, including a pair of former OK Preps standouts. Here’s a look.
Kanijal Thomas, CB, Kansas State
Thomas is an Oklahoman, playing his high school ball at Del City. He visited Stillwater on Saturday, according to On3.
He was a redshirt sophomore for the Wildcats in 2025, playing in seven games as a true freshman in 2023 before an injury saw his sophomore season end two games in.
Thomas played in eight games at K-State in 2025, finishing the year with five tackles, a PBU and a forced fumble. According to PFF, he gave up four catches for 21 yards this season on seven targets.
Now listed at 5-foot-11, 186 pounds, Thomas was a three-star prospect coming out of Del City in the 2023 class. He picked K-State over offers from OSU, Texas Tech, Iowa State and others.
Maurion Horn, CB, Texas Tech
Another Oklahoma kid, Maurion Horn has spent the past four seasons in Lubbock, where he has played in 30 games during that time. According to 247Sports, Horn will visit Stillwater on Monday.
He started all of Tech’s games in 2024, finishing that season with 56 tackles, three tackles for loss and five pass breakups. He played in seven games and dealt with some sort of injury, appearing on Tech’s availability report in Weeks 4, 14 and 15.
Horn has been targeted 88 times in his career, per PFF, where he has allowed just 47 catches.
He was a four-star prospect in the 2022 recruiting class out of Broken Arrow. He ended up picking Tech over offers from OSU, OU, Texas, Baylor, Arkansas and others.
Braylon Rigsby, Edge, Texas Tech
Listed at 6-foot-2, 275 pounds, Braylon Rigsby will join his Texas Tech teammate in Stillwater on Monday, according to 247Sports.
He’s played in 26 games across the past two seasons in Lubbock, accumulating 25 tackles and three tackles for loss during that time.
Per PFF, Rigsby has 21 QB pressures in his career to go with two QB hits.
He hails from Woodsville, Texas, which is near the Louisiana border. Rigsby was a three-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, coming in as the No. 861 player in the 247Sports Composite ranking.
Elite Delta Force captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife about 2 a.m. Saturday morning.
It happened in the Caracas, the capitol of Venezuela.
Social media posts how strikes ordered by President Trump into Venezuela and its military bases.
News 9 political analyst Scott Mitchell said the relationship between the U.S. and Latin America has not always been smooth and adds so many dominos will fall as a result.
“Venezuela is the beachhead for our adversaries that’s Cuba and Russia and China and Iran and it looks as if this latest situation where that they were assembling Iran swift attack boats that was sort of the last straw,” said Mitchell.
Retired war correspondent Mike Boettcher said the planning on capturing Maduro began in mid-December.
He adds Venezuela is a massive oil supplier whose oil has been taken off the market for years because of sanctions.
He has concerns about what comes next.
“That disrupts a lot of things.It even has an effect on the war in Ukraine, as Russia, you know, has used higher oil revenue because Venezuela’s oil was off the market.Oil prices went up.It helps fund the war in Ukraine,” said Boettcher.
The ramifications could even reach Oklahoma.
“China gets a 30 percent discount on the oil.If Venezuela goes for a more legitimate government and the sanctions are lifting, then they’re flooding the oil markets and that means bad news for the Oklahoma economy,” added Mitchell.
Following the capture of Maduro, President Trump said the U.S. will take control of the oil reserves in Venezuela.
Sources also say there are plans from the current administration to recruit American companies to invest billions of dollars in their oil industry.
A verified video shows the current state of Venezuela after the military operation.
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