This Week in Oklahoma Sooners Sports History

The Oklahoma Sooners have been absent from postseason NCAA baseball the past two seasons, but it hasn’t always been that way.

Between 2000 and 2013, the Oklahoma Sooners made 11 NCAA appearances over that 13-year span. In 2010, the Sooners posted a season record of 50-18, the fifth best won-lost record in program history, and made it all the way to the College World Series.

Sunny Golloway was the head coach in 2010 and was the man in charge the last six times the Sooners made it into the NCAA Baseball Championship.

Oklahoma has been to the College World Series 10 times. The Sooners won the national championship in their first trip to the College World Series in 1954 under longtime head coach Jack Baer, who coached OU baseball for 26 seasons and compiled a total of 531 wins and six conference championships (combined between the Big Six and Big Seven Conferences) while in Norman.

Twenty-one years ago this week, Oklahoma struck gold again in college baseball, winning its second College World Series crown. Larry Cochell was the man at the helm during that championship run, as the Sooners ran the table in NCAA Tournament play, sweeping all eight games on its way to a decisive 13-5 win over a Georgia Tech team that features former major-league stars Jason Varitek and Normar Garciaparra, both of whom spent a number of seasons as starters for the Boston Red Sox and MLB All-Stars.

That 1994 OU team also had its share of soon-to-be major league players. There were pitcher Russ Ortiz, Mark Redman and Brad Rigby as well as Ryan and Damon Minor, both infielders.

The No. 4-seeded Sooners began their 1994 CWS championship run with a 5-4 opening round win over No. 5 Auburn on June 4, and followed that with back-to-back victories over Arizona State: 4-3 in 11 innings on June 6 and a more convincing 6-1 win three days later.

Arizona State may have been the No. 8 seed in the CWS, but the Sun Devils beat No, 1 seed Miami twice, knocking out the Hurricanes in consecutive games.

The 6-1 Oklahoma win over Arizona State set up the championship game on June 11 between the undefeated Sooners and undefeated No. 2 seed Georgia Tech from the other side of the 1994 CWS bracket. The OU offense erupted early and often against the Ramblin’ Wreck, leaving no doubt that 1994 was the Sooners year.

OU made it back to Omaha and the CWS again in 1995, but the Sooners were eliminated after just two games. In Oklahoma’s last trip to the CWS, in 2010, the Sooners won their opening game over South Carolina, but fell in their next two games, ending their tournament run.