From Westmoore S P O RT S
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BRANDON ZARAGOZA
Photos by: Mark Doescher • Headshots courtesy: Josh Gateley - OU Athletics
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estmoore Baseball has always had a certain shade of crimson and cream attached to it. From its head coach to its numerous Sooner alums that played for the Jaguars, the Oklahoma Sooner Baseball program has been engrained within the Westmoore Jaguar program. This season, Sooner Baseball has been injected with more of a red and black tint as Westmoore alums are making an impact on the diamond for the Sooners. Between senior shortstop Brandon Zaragoza, redshirt freshman Braxton Bohrofen and his true freshman brother Jace Bohrofen, on any given night, a handful of former Jaguars players can find themselves in the starting lineup for Skip Johnson. “Westmoore has some really strong talented players… and things just aligned the way that they did,” Sooner Shortstop and Westmoore alum Brandon Zaragoza said. “It was one of those things where we had a couple of guys come to Oklahoma and we were looking at it as... well who’s going to be next? The next thing you know we’re all in college together and Westmoore is taking over.” Zaragoza has been a cornerstone for the Sooners defensively. During his freshman campaign, he started 56 games at short-
32 May 2021
stop and has started every single game since. Zaragoza has also become the all-time leader in games played for Sooner baseball and is widely regarded as one of the best defensive shortstops in college baseball. “If he hit .100, that’s all that matters to me, because I know if it’s hit to him, you’re going to get out,” Sooners coach Skip Johnson said. “That’s what kind of defender he is.” His high school coaches knew just how special Zaragoza was early in his high school career at Westmoore. Sooner Alum Jarod Freeman was the head baseball coach at Westmoore during the first three seasons of Zaragoza’s high school career. “At the end of his freshman year, he started coming up with the varsity group and we really got to see him start to shine for us,” Freeman said. “Going into his sophomore year, it was incredible the plays that he was making. It was Omar Vizquel-esqe some of the plays he could make. He’s doing skate park tricks at shortstop and he’s a sophomore in high school.” But it was more than just the eye of his high school coach that Zaragoza was catching. When a college coach came to town to look at some of the pitchers on the Westmoore staff, his attention shifted to the wiry shortstop.
