Nobody said it was going to be easy for Sooners baseball.
Connecticut starter Stephen Quigley kept Oklahoma off schedule all night as the Huskies punched their ticket into the Norman Regional final with a 4-1 win Saturday night at L. Dale Mitchell Ballpark.
Frustrating night at the yard for Skip Johnson’s club, who fall into an elimination game against Duke 2 p.m. Sunday.
“Hats off to UConn. Stephen Quigley pitched really good tonight. We hit a lot of balls hard right at guys tonight. That’s baseball. I thought our guys battled all night long,” said Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson.
Now Oklahoma’s season is on the line heading into Sunday.
DAVIS K’s 10, CROOKS MAKES A MISTAKE
Hard to place blame on the Sooners pitching staff. Braden Davis struck out 10 over 6.1 innings on Saturday night but is charged with the loss. He had won seven consecutive starts going into Saturday night.
“I thought (Davis) was really good. I thought he started out really good. Maybe we were pressing a little bit but that’s part of the game. That’s an older team. They have a lot of graduate seniors. They’ve played a lot of baseball in their life,” said Johnson.
UConn took advantage of back-to-back two-out walks in the third inning and took a 1-0 lead on a Korey Morton RBI single. But like he did all night, Davis was able to get out of it without any more damage done.
And that’s where the game would stay until the seventh when Caleb Shpur and Paul Tammaro each singled to force Davis out of the game. Two pitches later, Luke Broadhurst made Sooner reliever Dylan Crooks pay, hammering an elevated 0-1 fastball over the left field wall. A one-run game had turned into a four-run game with one swing.
“(Crooks) got beat with his best pitch. That’s baseball. Hats off to them. Maybe this will be just part of the story,” said Johnson.
Tough to swallow. But that’s simply just baseball.
NO HOLES TO BE FOUND
Oklahoma hit the ball hard many times on Saturday night, but there were no holes to be found. The Sooners didn’t send more than four batters to the plate until the ninth. Almost hard to fathom after the 17-hit, 14-run outburst in the regional opener.
Credit Quigley, who threw eight innings and scattered seven hits but most importantly? Only allowing one run.
“I think that guy has been in college baseball since 2019. It shows,” Johnson said. “It shows the composure he had in front of a great crowd today.
“He threw the backdoor slider and ran fastballs in. He made a lot of quality pitches. We hit a lot of balls hard. I want to say 14 balls we had quality at-bats on and hit line drive outs. He did a great job. They play great defense.”
Oklahoma stranded Michael Snyder after a one-out double in the fourth. Same for John Spikerman, who doubled with two outs in the fifth. Two innings later, Scott Mudler shot a one-out single into centerfield but the side was retired after Rocco Garza-Gongora lined into a double play to end the seventh.
“That’s pretty frustrating. We hit a lot of line drives but they weren’t falling. It’s a new day tomorrow. We’re up. We’re not down or anything. We don’t have any time to be down with an elimination game tomorrow. We’re not really worried about anything. Just have to have good quality at-bats,” said Kendall Pettis.
Pettis tried to inject a spark in the eighth with a solo home run but, like most of the night, Oklahoma was unable to sustain any kind of rally with a trio of fly balls to the outfield.
Again in the ninth, Oklahoma had life. Jaxon Willits and Michael Snyder each drew walks to begin the inning, but Huskies closer Brady Afthim slammed the door shut on any kind of Sooner magic.
OKLAHOMA’S SEASON IS ON THE LINE
When Oklahoma arrives to L. Dale Mitchell Ballpark on Sunday, it’ll be hoping to stay awhile. The Sooners will take on Duke in an elimination game at 2. The winner will then be tasked with beating the Huskies twice with a game on Sunday evening and an if game on Monday.
“It’s going to be challenging. It’s a late night, and you got to get up and play at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. When you win that game, you’ve got to win the next game. We’ve played five or six double-headers already this year. We’re capable of doing that, for sure,” said Johnson.
Grant Stevens is expected to get the ball against Duke. Stevens was fantastic last weekend at the Big 12 Tournament, striking out six over 5.1 innings against Kansas.
REGIONAL SCHEDULE
FRIDAY
Game 1: UConn 4, Duke 1
Game 2: Oklahoma 14, ORU 0
Saturday
Game 3: Duke 6, Oral Roberts 2
Game 4: UConn 4, Oklahoma 1
SundayGame 5: Duke vs. Oklahoma (Elimination, 2 p.m.)
Game 6: Game 5 winner vs. UConn (Regional Championship, 8 p.m.)
MondayIf necessary, to be determined
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