Oklahoma baseball: Looking ahead to Super Regional against Virginia Tech

After a nearly six-hour weather delay, the Oklahoma Sooners escaped Gainesville as regional champions, which means the astonishing postseason run continues.

The Oklahoma Sooners (40-21) have a Super Regional date with Virginia Tech (44-12) at English Field in Blacksburg, Virginia, beginning on Friday. After falling behind 3-1 against Florida, Shortstop Peyton Graham belted a ball over the left field wall for a two-run homer to tie the game.

The Sooners put up four runs in the 8th inning to take a 5-3 lead. OU head coach Skip Johnson gave the keys to Jake Bennett for the 8th and 9th inning, and the Sooners held on for a 5-4 winner-take-all victory.

The Hokies rolled through their regional with wins over Wright State, and Colombia twice. They are unbeaten in this year’s NCAA D1 Baseball Tournament and seeking their first ever Super Regional in program history. According to the Clarion-Ledger newspaper, the Hokies are the third- best team heading into the 16-team Super Regionals. The same newspaper ranked the Sooners 10th among the remaining 16 teams.

After dealing with a very difficult Gainesville Regional field, which had four teams with the best  RPI in the NCAA Tournament, the Sooners will have another tough test.

Virginia Tech has been scorching hot late in the season, but so have the Sooners. Johnson’s crew has been listed as an “Omaha sleeper” according to D1 baseball insider Kendall Rodgers, and they have proven why.

OU has had great production out of the lineup, but no bigger than Tanner Tredaway and Peyton Graham. In the Gainesville Regional, Tredaway was 8-for-17 (.470) with two RBIs, and Graham complememted that, going 6-for-18 (.333) with three HRs and eight RBIs. Despite the bats taking some time to heat up in the regional against Florida, the Sooners still racked up 32 runs in four games.

Believe it or not, the last time the Sooners made it to the Super Regionals was in 2013, where they faced off against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. In 2013, the Sooners rolled through the Blacksburg Super Regional with wins over Coastal Carolina, UCONN, and Virginia Tech. The two foes also faced off in 2018, when the Hokies beat the Sooners 14-6. Virginia Tech leads the all-time series against the Sooners 2-1.

If there’s one thing we find out in June, the teams that catch fire late in the year tend to make a run in the postseason, which is exactly what Oklahoma is doing. It will be a slug fest in Blacksburg between OU and Virginia Tech, and there will be stars that show up in the Super Regional series.

Here’s some players to keep an eye on for Oklahoma and Virginia Tech:

Oklahoma

INF Peyton Graham: .339, 19 HRs, 68 RBI (6-18 in Regional, 3 HRs, 8 RBI)

OF John Spikerman: .348, 2 HRs, 13 RBIs in 27 games played (5-15 in Regional, 1 HR, 4 RBI)

P Jake Bennett: 8-3 W/L, .369 ERA, 112 K

Virginia Tech

INF Tanner Schobel: .374, 18 HRs, 73 RBI ( 5-13 in Regional, 1 HR, 5 RBI)

OF Gavin Cross: .335, 16 HRs, 48 RBI ( 8-13 in Regional, 2 HRs, 7 RBI)

P Drue Hackenberg: 10-2 W/L, 3.10 ERA, 84 K