Victorious and adaptable, Sooners play for national championship beginning Sunday
Two things from Oklahoma’s Wednesday night College World Series victory over Georgia, neither having a whole lot to do with the Sooners’ 11-4 victory, the one that has them a best two-of-three-championship-series triumph over North Carolina from the program’s third national championship.
But who’s counting.
One, Jason Walk, who had a mammoth game otherwise, led off the top of the fifth inning by drawing a walk from Bulldog reliever Matt Scott. Then, simultaneous to Camden Johnson striking out, he stole second base.
Deiten LaChance then grounded out to third, with Georgia’s Trey Phelps looking Walk back toward second before throwing across the diamond. Yet, just as Phelps threw, Walk took third base anyway. No matter, Jaxon Willits, who had an otherwise mammoth game, too, struck out to end the frame.
Why the explanation?
Well, LaChance would have hit into a double play had Walk not stolen second. And because he advanced another 90 feet to third, he might have come home on an in-the-dirt offering from Scott. He didn’t, because Georgia catcher Daniel Jackson blocked it, but he might have.
Two, top of the sixth and Trey Gambill, who also had a mammoth game, led off with a single and stole second; and because he did and because he was thinking about third base as soon as Brendan Brock took a ball toward the left-field wall, he was waiting to tag up as it was caught, which he did.
Next up, Dasan Harris, who also enjoyed a mammoth game, though he grounded out to second base, plated Gambill nonetheless.
Here’s the thing.
OU didn’t have to win a tight game.
Again the Sooners received fine pitching and so many, as mentioned, played mammoth games. But had OU needed to steal a run or two to win, or merely reach extra innings, it’s executing that kind of baseball, too.
The Sooners just didn’t need it on a night they lashed five home runs, three doubles and 15 hits.
That’s how well OU’s playing.
That’s the story of this team right now.
Whatever it takes.
Now, let’s get to those mammoth games.
Walk and Harris, who entered with a moderate four home runs each, combined to hit four home runs.
Walk pounded a third-inning offering over straight-away center field, the game’s first run and the first such knock since the World Series began. He belted another solo shot in the eighth, pushing OU to a 9-3 advantage.
Harris delivered his first yard ball in the top of the fourth. Perhaps the game’s biggest swing, the two-run shot, thanks to a single from Brock, put OU in control 4-0 at a time starting pitcher Nick Wesloski was rolling.
Later, in the eighth, two batters before Walk hit his second, Harris hit his second, a no-doubt crush and another two-run job thanks to another single from Brock.
The most runs Harris had ever driven in previously was three. Wednesday, he drove in five and lifted his batting average to .359.
Gambill, meanwhile, went 4 for 5, drove in three and scored twice. He also went deep in the fourth inning, two batters before Harris cleared the fence the first time.
Willits, after striking out his first three turns at the plate, came through with an RBI double in the seventh, plating Kyle Branch, who’d walked, to make it 6-3, right after the Bulldogs had sent eight to the plate in the bottom of the sixth, scoring twice to make it 5-3.
Willits closed with a second double in the ninth, before coming home on a Gambill double to score the Sooners’ final run.
On the mound, it was Wesloski’s turn, yet another true freshman, just like Cord Rager and Xander Mercurious before him.
By the book, he tossed 5 2/3 innings, allowed four hits and three runs but just one earned thanks to Dayton Tockey’s error at first base, struck out four and walked two. Two of the runs charged to him, though, were walked home by L.J. Mercurious, who relieved him.
Mercurious eventually settled in and wound up throwing 3 1/3 innings, allowing two hits and a run, good for his fourth save since joining the bullpen.
The ESPN crew has had great fun referring to where the Sooners were only to be gobsmacked by where they now are.
Like, when May began, OU ranked 125th in the nation in home runs, but is now up to 30th; or how 43 of the Sooners’ 91 home runs have come in the last 16 games; or how they ranked 14th in the SEC in home runs during the regular season, but have hit more than any team since NCAA play began.
At one point, play-by-play man Karl Ravech referred to OU as “a team that’s on a tear like we’ve never seen.”
Right after, color man Chris Burke offered, “They keep surprising me, but this is just who they are right now.”
They are.
Saturday, the championship series begins.
Both teams will be rested and both will have all their pitching available.
Somebody’s got to win.
The Tar Heels were the better team all season.
Nobody’s better than the Sooners now.