While many fans learned the fate of the battered Big 12 Conference on Monday afternoon, the Sooners blasted four home runs over Virginia’s fence that same evening to advance to the NCAA Baseball College World Series beginning this weekend in Omaha, Neb.
The College World Series appearance is OU’s 10th overall and first since 1995. The Sooners, the 1951 and 1994 national champions, are searching for their third NCAA baseball title.
“This Oklahoma club is a dangerous club going to Omaha,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said.
And if danger is the team’s mantra, then it’s coming at the right time.
The Sooners’ first opponent in the double-elimination championship bracket is unranked South Carolina. But OU will have to get past No. 1 Arizona State to reach the championship game.
Only two of the nation’s other top-eight seeds will make the trip to Omaha: No. 3 Florida and No. 6 UCLA.
TCU stunned last year’s runner-up and No. 2 seed Texas to earn a bid, while No. 7 Louisville and No. 8 Georgia Tech failed to make it out of regional action.
The Sooners have a few things going for them:
Cody Reine’s Bat: This Sooner has 10 home runs on the year; five of them have been sent over the walls during the NCAA tournament.
Reine hit four home runs in back-to-back games against Virginia. In the decisive third game, the Sooners jumped to a 3-0 lead courtesy of his homer over the right-field fence.
Shore’s Performances: Junior pitcher Bobby Shore was named the Norman Regional Most Outstanding Player.
Shore also was named the Player of the Game for his performance in the third game against the Cavaliers. Through eight innings and 99 pitches, Shore allowed only four hits, only two base runners received free passes through walks, while striking out five batters.
In the Norman Regional, Shore struck out six batters while giving up four hits in the 3-2 win to send the OU into the next round.
Buechele’s Leadership: Garrett Buechele has 125 career starts with team following the third game against Virginia. He eclipsed junior Casey Johnson (123) on Sunday afternoon during game two, and doesn’t look to finding himself on the bench anytime soon.
Going into Friday night’s game against Virginia, Buechele was on an 11-game hitting streak.
Although he didn’t get a hit in the first two games, the third baseman returned in the third game with a two-RBI double to limit the hitless streak to two games.
OU’s 49-16 Record: While the obvious improvement is the added wins to this year’s record compared with the previous season, the last time the Sooners lost back-to-back games can be found in April against Texas Tech.
Since then, the Sooners have found a way to bounce back from a loss. In the past 16 games, OU has only posted two losses.
Multiple come-from-behind and one-run victories, both before and during NCAA tournament action, also are important considerations when looking at this Sooner record.
The will to win definitely will play a factor in the championship series.
The Sooners face off against South Carolina at 1 p.m. Sunday, and the victor advances to play the winner of ASU and Clemson at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
After double elimination rounds in the bracket action, the final two teams will meet for a best-of-three series in the championship series beginning June 28.
All the action from Omaha will air on ESPN3.com.
The Oklahoma Daily is pleased to provide you the opportunity to share your thoughts about this article. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or straying from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of OUDaily.com. Thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register
SoonerFanatic2016 1 year, 11 months ago
Let's show south carolina what we can do. Good luck today! ;)