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OU Baseball: Oklahoma Wilts as North Carolina Overpowers OU Ace

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OU Baseball: Oklahoma Wilts as North Carolina Overpowers OU Ace


Oklahoma’s Witherspoon brothers reversed roles this weekend in the NCAA Tournament.

No. 3 starter Malachi Witherspoon, who posted a 1-8 record in SEC play with a 6.08 earned run average, dominated Nebraska on Friday night at the Chapel Hill Regional.

Then ace Kyson Witherspoon, who went 5-3 against the Southeastern Conference with a 2.98 ERA, was rocked for six unearned runs in the first inning against host North Carolina on Saturday.

Baseball can be weird sometimes.

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Kyson Witherspoon’s early struggles against the Tar Heels eventually became an 11-5 Sooner loss at Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill, as the No. 5 national seed Tar Heels rolled to an easy victory.

OU fell to 36-21 on the season, while UNC improved to 44-12.

The No. 2-seed Sooners now face elimination Sunday in an 11 a.m. CT rematch with Nebraska. OU beat the 3-seed Cornhuskers 7-4 in their first-round game on Friday after jumping on top 7-0. The Tar Heels await the survivor of that contest Sunday at 5 p.m. CT. Nebraska eliminated 4-seed Holy Cross 4-1 on Saturday morning.

After OU left a runner in scoring position in the top of the first, North Carolina most certainly did not in the bottom of the first.

Kane Kepley reached on what would become a fatal error by Dawson Willis, but Witherspoon quickly retired the next two hitters.

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That would be the Sooners’ only highlight early.

Two-out singles from Gavin Gallaher, Hunter Stokely, Alex Madera and Tyson Bass staked UNC to a 3-0 lead — all unearned due to the error at third base.

That’s when right fielder Sam Angelo broke it open with a three-run home run to left field that made it 6-0.

“Just figuring out what we’re doing,” OU coach Skip Johnson said during a fourth-inning in-game interview with the ESPN broadcast crew. “If we play good catch in the first inning, I think he throws six pitches. They took the momentum and we’ve gotta get some momentum back.”

Witherspoon’s previous season high for runs allowed — for an entire game — was four (twice). The Tar Heels scored six in their first eight batters.

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His previous season-high for hits allowed was six (four times), but UNC had seven after loading the bases again in the second inning. 

The Sooners were chasing the scoreboard rest of the night, and that was a tough task against Carolina hurler Jason DeCaro, who came into the weekend with a 10-4 record and a 3.42 ERA. DeCaro went six innings, allowed three runs on seven hits and struck out eight while walking none.

UNC added a run in the fourth to make it 7-0 on Gallaher’s RBI single to score Kepley, but things got really out of hand in the fifth.

Bass and Angelo hammered back-to-back solo home runs to extend the Tar Heels’ lead to 9-0 and end Witherspoon’s night.

Witherspoon hadn’t given up more than one home run in a game all season, but he served up three on this night. His four-inning start also tied his shortest outing of the season (he threw four innings at Alabama on March 28).

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Witherspoon finished the night yielding a season-high 10 hits and nine runs — three earned — and tied both his season-low with just four strikeouts and his season-high with three walks.

“Kyson’s been really good for us all year,” Johnson said.

The Sooners finally answered with a pair of runs in the sixth on Sam Christiansen’s RBI double and Kyle Branch’s RBI groundout.

But North Carolina answered immediately with a run in the bottom of the inning when Gavyn Jones gave up a hit batter, a wild pitch and an RBI single by Madera to make it 10-2.

OU plated another run when Drew Dickerson opened the seventh with a single, advanced on back-to-back ground-ball outs and came home on Trey Gambill’s RBI single up the middle to cut it to 10-3.

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Again, however, the Tar Heels answered when Beau Sampson walked Angelo to lead off, then misfired a pair of wild pitches and eventually gave up an RBI single to Carter French for an 11-3 lead. 

OU made it 11-4 in the eighth when Christiansen drew a one-out walked, took second on a passed ball and scored on Dasan Harris’ RBI single to left.

Jaxson Willits make it 11-5 in the ninth when he delivered an RBI single to score Jason Walk.

Left hander Cameron Johnson came in to pitch the eighth for OU. Johnson, a weekend starter over the first seven weeks of the season after transferring from LSU, hadn’t made an appearance on the mound since April 13 and had only thrown 20 innings total in 2025.



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Three Big 12 Transfers Oklahoma State Is Reportedly Interested In

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Three Big 12 Transfers Oklahoma State Is Reportedly Interested In


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.

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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.

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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.

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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.



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Capture of Nicolas Maduro: What it could mean for Oklahoma

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Capture of Nicolas Maduro: What it could mean for Oklahoma


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.

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“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.

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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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Oklahoma State expected to lose talented EDGE to transfer portal

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Oklahoma State expected to lose talented EDGE to transfer portal


Oklahoma State EDGE Kyran Duhon plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, On3 has learned. Duhon was a member of the 2024 recruiting class.

Duhon spent one year at Oklahoma State, logged 16 total tackles (eight solo) across nine games. He began his career at UTEP, where he had a productive true freshman season, Duhon finished 2024 with 43 total tackles, including seven sacks and two PBUs.

At UTEP, his one season there resulted in second team All-Conference USA honors. He was also named to the On3 True Freshman All-America Team as well as the the Conference USA All-Freshman team.

However, Duhon’s stay in Stillwater didn’t go as expected. Oklahoma State finished the season with a 1-11 record, which included the Cowboys firing longtime head coach Mike Gundy after a 1-2 start. Doug Meacham was named interim head coach but ended the year 0-9.

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Eric Morris has since been named as the program’s next head coach. He comes from North Texas, which finished with an 11-2 record and a trip to the American Conference championship game this past season. However, it doesn’t appear that Duhon will be sticking around during the changing of the guard at Oklahoma State this offseason.

Before college, Duhon was the No. 1,706 overall player in the class, and was recruited as the the No. 165 linebacker during the cycle, per the Rivals Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was ranked as the No. 242 overall player out of Texas.

Once the NCAA transfer portal opens on Jan. 2, players can officially enter their names in the NCAA transfer portal and go on to initiate contact with their preferred schools. The portal will be open for 15 days and close on Jan. 16.

Notably, players who are on teams competing in the national championship game are allowed five extra days to make their portal decision. The College Football Playoff championship game will be played on Jan. 19, so the players on those teams will be allowed until Jan. 24 to enter the portal and choose their next school.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

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