Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma baseball: Tables reversed against stunned Sooners in Louisville Regional

By Chip Rouse

Jan 2, 2017; New Orleans , LA, USA; Oklahoma Sooners fans take photos before the 2017 Sugar Bowl against the Auburn Tigers at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 2, 2017; New Orleans , LA, USA; Oklahoma Sooners fans take photos before the 2017 Sugar Bowl against the Auburn Tigers at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports /
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There’s no question Oklahoma baseball took a big blow to the gut in a knockout-punch seventh inning on Saturday in an NCAA Regional game against host Louisville, but now the Sooners have to regroup and fast and not let that one loss turn into an elimination loss on Sunday against Xavier.

“You can’t feel sorry for yourself for too long,” said Sooner head coach Pete Hughes after the game, “because we’re up early in the morning (on Sunday) and trying to figure out how to win this thing. You can’t let Saturday night beat you twice, and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”

Louisville, the top seed, broke up a 1-1 tie with a seven-run explosion in the eighth inning off of five Oklahoma pitchers and cruised home from there to put itself in the driver’s seat to advance to the next round in the NCAA Baseball Championship. The Cardinals followed up their eighth-inning eruption with three more meaningless runs in the ninth.

Saturday’s contest was the first ever meeting on a baseball diamond between Louisville and Oklahoma.

Sophomore right-hander Jake Irvin was pitching a strong game through seven innings, matching his All-American counterpart Brendan McKay, who many college baseball experts believe has a good chance of becoming national player of the year. Irvin gave up just one run on three hits through seven innings, while McKay held the Sooners to a single run on just two hits over 6 1/3 innings.

The Sooners got a taste of their own medicine on Saturday. Oklahoma did the same thing the day before, breaking open a tight game with Xavier by scoring seven runs in the seventh inning on the way to a 7-3 victory that sent the Sooners on to the winner’s bracket showdown with the Cardinals.

Oklahoma (35-23) has done well this season when scoring first. The Sooners took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth, when Kyle Mendenhall ripped a double off the left center-field wall, scoring Domenic DeRenzo from first. That turned out to be the only OU score in the game. The Sooners are 20-9 this season when they put the first number on the scoreboard.

OU will now face Xavier for a second time in the tournament in an elimination game on Sunday. The Musketeers rebounded from their 7-3 loss to the Sooners with a 3-1 victory over Radford.

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