Sooners beat Notre Dame 6-2 to move within win of CWS finals
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Cade Horton struck out a career-high 11 in six innings, Tanner Tredaway continued his torrid postseason with three hits and Oklahoma took management of its bracket within the School World Sequence with a 6-2 victory over Notre Dame on Sunday night time.
The Sooners (44-22) want yet one more win to advance to the best-of-three finals beginning Saturday. They’ll play Wednesday in opposition to the winner of a Tuesday elimination sport between Notre Dame (41-16) and Texas A&M. The Aggies beat Texas 10-2 on Sunday.
With three freshmen, 5 sophomores and a senior within the on a regular basis lineup and picked to complete sixth within the Large 12, Oklahoma wasn’t anticipated to be on this place. The Sooners received scorching the second half of the common season, gained the convention event and went on the highway to win its regional and tremendous regional.
“Successful the nationwide championship has at all times been the aim, and we’ve had that from the very starting,” freshman third baseman Wallace Clark mentioned. “It’s not a brand new thought. Even after we would lose a mid-week sport, we might speak about it. The thought behind it was we’re going to win the entire rattling factor.”
Horton, who had Tommy John surgical procedure 16 months in the past and didn’t pitch till March 29, went not less than six innings for a 3rd straight begin. The redshirt freshman held the Irish scoreless on three singles the primary 5 innings.
Horton (5-2) gave up David LaManna’s two-run homer to left within the sixth and didn’t come out for the seventh. He threw a season-high 100 pitches.
“When you have got mid 90s, you have got slider, you have got a curveball, and he flashed a changeup periodically… That was loads. Clearly we didn’t acknowledge it,” Irish coach Hyperlink Jarrett mentioned.
Tredaway continued to be a catalyst for the Sooners. He’s now batting .513 (20 of 39) within the NCAA Event after going 3 for 4 and lengthening his hitting streak to 16 video games. He drove in two runs and scored twice.
“I actually wish to hold issues easy,” Tredaway mentioned. “I get in patterns like this the place I can go on a protracted stretch and do fairly nicely. I attempt to not get out of my zone. I feel the two-strike strategy has been actually good for me the final couple weeks. I’m making an attempt to hit good pitches and do my factor and be on time.”
Notre Dame starter Austin Temple walked three of the eight batters he confronted and was pulled with one out within the second.
Reliever Aidan Tyrell (5-2) received out of the inning however encountered hassle within the third. Peyton Graham legged out an infield single, stole second and scored on Tredaway’s base hit. Tredaway took second on a handed ball and got here residence on Clark’s single.
The Sooners added three extra runs within the sixth to go up 5-0. Two of these scored on Clark’s bunt on the security squeeze. Tredaway got here residence from third, and Jimmy Crooks adopted him in from first when Carter Putz picked up the ball and threw wildly to Jared Miller protecting the bag.
Putz had 4 of the Irish’s seven hits, his final one main off the eighth inning and prompting the gamers within the Notre Dame dugout to grab their “rally bananas.”
The Irish have been getting the bananas out in the course of the postseason after they want optimistic mojo within the late innings. If one thing good occurs, the gamers take a chew. However Jack Zyska hit right into a double play and LaManna flew out to finish the eighth.
The Irish received their first two batters on base within the ninth, however Clark stepped on the bag at third and threw to first for a double play when Zack Prajzner grounded to him. Trevin Michael struck out Ryan Cole to finish the sport.
PINBALL BALL
The Oklahoma fourth inning ended on a loopy play after Peyton Graham had singled into proper subject and OU’s John Spikerman rounded second and headed to 3rd.
Proper fielder Brooks Coetzee threw to 3rd to get Spikerman, however the ball popped out of Jack Brannigan’s glove as he tried to placed on the tag. The ball deflected off third-base coach Clay Van Hook and got here to relaxation subsequent to Brannigan. He picked it up and tagged Spikerman, who didn’t understand the ball got here out of the glove and had turned to return to the dugout.
FLIPPING OUT
The sport began with some pleasure as OU first baseman Blake Robertson flipped over the Notre Dame dugout rail whereas catching Cole’s pop foul on the primary pitch of the sport. Robertson raised his glove to indicate umpires he hung onto the ball.
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