Mirroring the Sooner softball success in winning the Women’s College World Series, the Oklahoma baseball men downed Virginia Tech in Game 1 of the Blacksburg Super Regional on Friday to get within one win themselves of punching their ticket to the baseball College World Series.
The Sooners (41-22) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first two innings, increased it to 5-0 with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth and then held on down the stretch for a 5-4 win, their 14th in the last 18 games.
A single by Blake Robertson netted the Sooners first run in the first inning, and they followed that with two more runs in the second on singles by Kendall Pettis and John Spikerman. Pettis drove in another run in the sixth with a single scoring Brett Squires. Before that, Squires singled in Jackson Nicklaus.
Virginia Tech, the No, 4-seeded team in this year’s NCAA Tournament, got a pair of home runs by Carsen Jones and Jack Hurley in the sixth and seventh innings to close within one run, but OU closer Tevin Michael slammed the door shut on the Hokies over the final two frames to secure the win for the visiting Sooners.
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OU starter Jake Bennett posted another solid pitching performance in winning his ninth game of the season against three losses. The left-handed Bennett went seven strong innings, giving up four runs on eight hits and fanning eight Hokie hitters. Michael recorded his 10th save.
Virginia Tech entered the game on English Field at Atlantic Union Bank Park, the Hokies’ home field, batting .313 as a team and averaging 8.8 runs and 11.2 hits per game.
Nicklaus, Squires, Pettis and Peyton Graham, all had two hits apiece for the Sooners, accounting for eight of the 12 Oklahoma hits in the game off of five Virginia Tech pitchers. Hokie starter G Green lasted just one inning.
This is Oklahoma’s fifth trip to the NCAA Baseball Super Regionals. OU is 4-7 overall in Super Regional play. The Sooners only Super Regional championship was in 2010 against the Virginia Cavaliers. That was also the last time OU appeared in the College World Series.