Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Silence Notre Dame, Move to 2-0 at College World Series

Cade Horton tossed another gem on the mound with the bats of Peyton Graham and Tanner Tredaway leading the way offensively.

OMAHA – Oklahoma is one win away from playing for the title.

After taking down No. 5 Texas A&M in the opener on Friday, the Sooners continued play in the College World Series on Sunday night against Notre Dame in a winner’s bracket collision.

Yet again, the Sooners found a way to finish on the right side of the scoreboard, knocking off the Fighting Irish 6-2 at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.

Looking to continue his dominant stretch, right-hander Cade Horton earned the start for Oklahoma and delivered on the mound once again.

The Norman native tossed six rock solid innings, allowing just two runs and striking out a career-high 11 batters.

"I thought Cade really set the tone early and took the momentum from the first inning, had a really solid first inning," head coach Skip Johnson said postgame. "Played really good defense. Had competitive bats offensively. Just a team full of Davids."

In a rare occurrence for both the Sooners and the 2022 CWS, the bats started things off slow on Sunday night.

It took until the third inning to see the scoreboard light up — with a likely culprit doing the honors.

OU center fielder Tanner Tredaway continued his monster postseason with a one-out RBI single to put Oklahoma in front.

Tanner Tredaway continues his hot postseason and puts @OU_Baseball on the board first!

📺 ESPN2#MCWS pic.twitter.com/UJNQQSeZ5l

— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 20, 2022

Freshman third baseman Wallace Clark followed him up two batters later with a run-scoring hit of his own to make it 2-0 Sooners through three.

After a bizarre fourth inning in which Oklahoma had two runners thrown out at third base, the OU offense added more runs in the fifth.

With runners on first and third, Clark laid down a sacrifice bunt that was promptly thrown away at first base, allowing both runners to score and for Clark to get all the way around to third.

𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙊𝙎

📺 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/NW2cYEugrI

— Oklahoma Baseball (@OU_Baseball) June 20, 2022

"We strive, we emphasize kind of executing and doing your job," Clark said. "And once you do that, everything will fall into place. And I was able to do that today."

Second baseman Jackson Nicklaus then singled Clark home to extend the Sooners' lead to 5-0 after five.

"We talk about that a lot, trying to separate balls from strikes and putting the ball in play, just trying to beat an infielder with two strikes, beat an infielder with two strikes, put the ball in play, make those guys play catch along the way," Johnson said. 

"They did a great job with it tonight. Notre Dame is a lot like us. And after watching film and studying through all that deal, you could see it. And we knew it going into it. And we made some plays and kept it going, got some big two-strike hits, two-out hits. It was really fun to watch."

In the sixth, Horton made his lone mistake of the game, serving up a two-run home to UND catcher David LaManna to get them back in the game at 5-2.

But, as they have so many times throughout the season, Oklahoma quickly responded to get a run back.

Tredaway drove in a runner with a two-out RBI single to put OU up by four runs heading into the late innings.

The veteran outfielder finished his day 3-for-4 with two RBIs — continuing what has been an extended stretch of hot hitting. 

"I really like to keep things simple," Tredaway said. "I get in patterns like this is where I can go on a long stretch and do pretty well. 

“I just try to swing at good pitches, try not to get out of my zone. The two-strike approach has been really good, really key for me the last couple of weeks. I think that's helped me tremendously. But, yeah, I'm just trying to hit good pitches and do my thing and be on time, more than anything."

In the seventh, Johnson made the bold move to go to right-handed senior Jaret Godman out of the bullpen in relief of Horton.

In his first appearance since May 21, before the start of the postseason, Godman worked a scoreless frame with two huge strikeouts after a one-out walk. 

"I kept telling Godman, he's got a really good arm, he's really talented," Johnson said. "I kept saying, finish the race, finish the race, continue to grow. And, pretty selfless of him to go out there and do what he did tonight."

Needing six outs to complete the win, Johnson then turned to his best reliever in closer Trevin Michael.

After facing the minimum in the eighth, Michael would run into some traffic on the bases in the ninth.

With runners on first and second with no outs, the right-hander forced a grounder to third that Clark scooped up, stepped on the bag and fired to first for a huge double play. 

This continued a theme of the OU defense making highlight-reel plays throughout the night. 

"This defense behind me is incredible," Horton said. "They (the defense) all make great plays for me and that makes it easy to challenge up the hitter."

Michael then struck out the final batter to end the game and seal the win. 

The victory improves Oklahoma to 44-22 on the year and moves the Sooners to within one win of playing for a national title in the championship series.

"Winning the national championship's always been kind of the goal," Clark said. "And we've had that in mind from the very beginning and it's not just a new idea."

The Sooners will now get some time to recuperate, as they get the next two days off before returning to action on Wednesday at 1 p.m. against Tuesday’s Texas A&M/Notre Dame winner.