Oklahoma baseball: Remembering the 1994 College World Series
By Chip Rouse
On Thursday night, a new national champion will be crowned in college baseball. Twenty-four years ago, it was the Oklahoma baseball team that stormed away with the trophy.
The 1994 national championship Sooner baseball squad ran the table, registering a perfect 8-0 record in its run to the College World Series title and OU’s second national championship in the sport.
The Sooners have only been back to Omaha, Nebraska, and the CWS two other times since 1994 (in 1995 and 2010) and were just 1-4 in those two trips.
Oklahoma’s only other national championship in baseball came on the teams very first trip to the CWS, in 1951. OU came from behind to defeat Tennessee 3-2 and became the first team to win the double-elimination tournament, which was only in its fifth year, without suffering a loss, going 4-0.
The CWS title in 1951 capped a special year in Sooner sports history. Oklahoma won three national championships that year: in football, wrestling and baseball.
Jack Baer who coached for 26 seasons at Oklahoma, directed the Sooners on their 1951 championship run. Forty-three years later, it was Larry Cochell who coached Oklahoma to its second national crown and CWS title, won on the same field, Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, that produced OU’s first national championship.
The 1994 Sooner baseball team was probably not the best team that made it to the CWS that season, but they played extremely hard and played for each other in the true definition of a team. Interestingly, the team’s motto that season was: “Twenty-five guys pulling on the same rope.”
OU, seeded fourth in the eight-team championship field, slipped by Auburn by one run in its opening-round game in the 1994 CWS and then defeated Arizona State in back-to-back games to advance to the championship series versus No. 2 seed Georgia Tech.
The Georgia Tech lineup featured a couple of players who went on to excellent careers in Major League Baseball (shortstop Nomar Garciappara and catcher Jason Varitek). The two teams were tied at two runs apiece after three innings, but Oklahoma erupted for five runs in the fourth inning and added four more in the sixth to put the game away.
The game ended in a 13-5 Sooner runaway, with OU pounding out 16 hits and taking advantage of four Georgia Tech errors. Tim Walton, who pitched two innings in relief of Sooner starter Kevin Lovingier, was credited with the win, and OU outfielder Chip Glass, who went yard three times in that year’s CWS, including in the championship game, was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 1994 CWS.
In 72 innings in 1994 NCAA postseason play, the Sooners remarkably trailed in only one inning on its way to eight consecutive wins without a loss.
It’s been eight years since Oklahoma last appeared in the College World Series, but the Sooners still rank in the top 10 of all teams who have made it there, with 10 appearances, and OU’s 15 CWS victories ranks in the top 20.
Information for this article was obtained from the 2018 Oklahoma Baseball Media Guide.