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OU baseball: Kyler Murray's baseball dedication excites new Sooners coach Skip Johnson as two-sport athlete begins hectic spring

NORMAN — Skip Johnson received the phone call around 1:30 a.m.

“Coach?” Kyler Murray would be on the other end. “Can you open the gate?”

Then Oklahoma’s pitching coach, Johnson would drive to L. Dale Mitchell Baseball Park to let Murray out of the complex last season. Murray would stay late nights by himself in the batting cage to work on his offense and security would lock the outside gate.

Murray — who will be in a battle with Austin Kendall for Oklahoma’s starting quarterback job this spring — intends to also play baseball for Johnson, the Sooners’ first-year head coach.