Xander Mercurius’ mother watched from the bleachers with tears in her eyes.
She had just watched her son lead OU (40-22) to a 4-3 win against No. 3 overall seed Georgia (52-13) in the College World Series in front of 24,455 fans at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.
Mercurius, who had just thrown a career-high nine strikeouts in a career-long 7.1 innings of work, felt the magnitude of the moment too.
“All I have to do is take it all in,” Mercurius said, according to ASAP Sport transcripts. “It’s honestly surreal I got to in front of all these people.”
The freshman pitcher, along with senior Jackson Cleveland, who came in relief, held the Bulldogs to their lowest-scoring game since a 2-1 win over Auburn (42-22) on May 14. The Bulldogs did not even register a run until the fourth inning.
“I thought Xander went out and was really calm in the first inning,” head coach Skip Johnson said. “He made some really good pitches.”
Mercurius finished Monday night with 104 pitches thrown against the Bulldogs. He also threw 101 pitches against No. 2 overall seed Georgia Tech (50-11) with a then-career-high eight strikeouts.
Mercurius credits head coach Skip Johnson for his endurance and growth.
“The guy sitting right next to me, Skip Johnson, he's been great,” Mercurius said. “He's been helping me every single day just (become) better, and that's … all I can hope or ask for.”
Johnson said that Mercurius reminded him of current MLB player and former Duke pitcher Marcus Stroman, who ranks No. 4 on the Blue Devils’ all-time strikeouts list, when he was recruiting him.
“He reminded me a lot of the right-handed pitcher that pitched at Duke -- Stroman,” Johnson said. “He reminded me a lot of Stroman. He had great stuff, a little bitty guy (and) had a big arm. He wasn't afraid of the moment.”
Mercurius made sure to have a heart of steel to endure past the seventh inning and not take the stage for granted.
“I just kept pounding my chest, just telling (Johnson) I'm good,” Mercurius said. “I honestly felt amazing. … I just kept pitching with conviction.”
Mercurius and the team had current and former Sooner coaches from other programs, including football leaders Brent Venables, Bob Stoops and Barry Switzer, there in support. The freshman pitcher was glad that the coaches made the trip.
“It just shows the support that OU has,” Mercurius said. “We're a family. We stick to that as a team, and we stick to it as a program. And we stick to it as a school. OU is a great school, and all of our sports stick together. We're all athletes. We all go through the same struggles. And we're just happy to have coaches of the other sports.”
Mercurius’ impressive performance follows freshman southpaw Cord Rager pitching a shutout against No. 7 overall seed Alabama (42-21) in a 9-0 win Saturday to start the College World Series for the Sooners.
Junior infielder Jaxon Willits, who hit a home run Monday, praised the freshmen’s poise.
“It's tough as a freshman; you come in and it's a big jump, one of the biggest jumps in sports from high school baseball to college baseball, …” Willits said. “Especially for them to do it in the SEC this year, it's really tough. So to be able to just take it one day at a time, one pitch at a time and to be able to slow everything down and realize that all that matters is the task at hand, I feel like they've done a really good job at that. And because of that they've had a lot of success.”
OU will play against the winner between Georgia and No. 6 overall seed Texas (46-14) at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha on ESPN.
This story was edited by Josh Franklin.
