The Oklahoma Sooners continued their hot play beating the best team on paper left in the College World Series on Monday night. The Sooners used some incredible pitching and some timely homeruns to defeat #3 Georgia for their 7th straight win putting them one win away from advancing to the best of 3 finals.
The Sooners were the home team for this one, and after a 1-2-3 inning from Xander Mercurius, OU got on the board. Jason Walk led off with a double that almost got out of the park. Camden Johnson was hit by a pitch. After a wild pitch that sent the runners to 3B and 2B, Deiten Lachance brought in Walk on an RBI groundout. In the very next AB, Jaxon Willits then made it a 3-0 ball game on a 2 run bomb that bounced off the top of the RC wall.
The game stayed 3-0 until the top of the 4th when Kenny Ishikawa got Georgia on the board with a solo shot over the right field wall.
OU got the run back in the bottom half as Brendan Brock too a 2 strike pitch for an oppo taco to right center field to make the score 4-1.
Brennan Hudson added a solo shot in the 5th to make it 4-2 OU.
After some gutsy innings to keep Georgia off the board in the 6th and 7th, Mercurius gave up another solo homerun to potential National Player of the Year Daniel Jackson in the 8th with one out.
Jackson Cleveland came in relief and although he allowed to Bulldogs to get on base, he got out of the inning with no runs given up to keep the score 4-3.
In the bottom of the 8th, OU got runners on 1B and 2B with one out, but hit into a line out double play to end the threat.
The top of the 9th saw Cleveland give up a hit and hit a batter putting runners on 1B and 2B with 2 outs, but then he got Tre Phelps to strike out and Jackson to fly out to right center to end the game.
The story of the game was Xander Mercurius. The true freshman was outstanding all night except for 3 pitches – the 3 solo home runs he gave up. In a game against one of the all time power teams, he allowed only 3 runs in 7.1 innings of work striking out 9 against only 2 walks.
The Sooners are one win away from advancing to the best of 3 final series as they await the winner of Georgia and Texas on Wednesday night.
Select stats:
– Mercurius (W): 7.1 IP, 6 H,3 ER, 2 BB, 9 K
– Cleveland (S): 1.2 IP, 2 H, BB, 2 K
– Willits: 3-4, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R
– Brock: HR, RBI, R
– Lachance: H, RBI
– Walk: 2-4, 2B, R
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