Oklahoma is not headed to the super regional round after losing Monday night to the UConn Huskies 7-1 in the Norman Regional championship game.
The No. 9 seeded Sooners were locked in a 0-0 tie for the first three innings of the game, but UConn clubbed in four runs in the top of the fourth inning to get the scoring going. The Huskies produced two two-run home runs before heading into the middle of the inning and the overall midpoint of the game — and OU was never able to recover.
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After the loss, Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson was asked if the momentum changed following that second homer.
“Yeah, it changed a lot. I mean, it kind of took the wind out our sails,” said Johnson, since four runs is a pretty hefty deficit halfway through the game. Although, his team has made big comebacks in the past.
“These guys were trying hard to have quality at bats, and when you’re down two and four to nothing — we fought back all year long. Matter of fact, a week ago, we fought back and came back and won a game. So, it ain’t like we’ve never done it before.”
The Sooners certainly didn’t quit and put up competitive at bats all night long. At the end of the day, though, they just couldn’t get the ball to bounce their way.
“So, just proud of the guys for fighting and continuing to fight,” added Johnson. The one area he did criticize was Oklahoma’s defensive effort.
“You know, your defensive success — you got to play good baseball and we didn’t play good tonight. We just didn’t. I mean, just picked a bad day to play bad.”
UConn was the better baseball team in just about every phase of the final elimination game, and that’s why Oklahoma is staying home for good.
Johnson won’t stay too angry about the end of this season, and he’s confident OU will bounce back with a strong first year in the SEC.
“I mean, you can’t hang your head down. We lost in the championship of the regional. Our watermark and what we plan and my vision was to go to Omaha every year, and that’s what we practice every day for, to win the last game of the year. Our culture is really good. We get after it and play hard and that’s what we’re about.”
2024 is still a wildly successful season. Even though, in Johnson’s eyes, the goal is to put Oklahoma in a position to compete for the College World Series on a yearly basis.
The post Skip Johnson on Oklahoma’s defense in regional final: ‘We picked a bad day to play bad’ appeared first on On3.