On his way home from the OU baseball facilities Wednesday evening, Skip Johnson’s phone buzzed. On the other line was a pitching pupil and one of the Chicago Cubs’ top prospects in Cade Horton, a leader from OU's 2022 College World Series runner-up squad.

Cade Horton knew pretty quickly something was up. Triple-A Iowa pitching coach Tony Cougoule summoned Horton from his Toledo, Ohio, hotel room to head up to manager Marty Pevey’s room because he had been named the league’s pitcher of the month.

Horton made his major league debut almost three years after the Cubs selected him seventh overall in the 2022 amateur draft out of the University of Oklahoma. He posted a 2.65 ERA