All Sooners

OU Baseball: Grant Stevens' Career Outing Powers Oklahoma Past Duke in NCAA Regional

With help from the Sooners' defense, senior pitcher Grant Stevens had one of the best outings of his career to keep OU alive in the NCAA Tournament.

Randall Sweet

Kendall Pettis plays outfield
Kendall Pettis plays outfield / STEVE SISNEY / USA TODAY NETWORK

NORMAN — In an elimination game against Duke on Sunday afternoon, NCAA Regional host Oklahoma kept its Super Regional hopes alive, defeating the Blue Devils 4-3.

OU won its first contest of the NCAA Tournament with a convincing 14-0 victory over Oral Roberts, but fell to Connecticut 4-1 on Saturday night to place Skip Johnson's team in a win or go home matchup against Duke.

Senior left hander Grant Stevens started on the mound for Oklahoma and had one of the best performances of his career, finishing with seven strikeouts while giving up just one earned run on six hits and two walks in seven innings.

On offense, sophomore catcher Easton Carmichael was the only Sooners' player to record multiple hits against the Blue Devils, going 2-for-4 at the plate.

Behind Stevens, the OU's defense had a stellar performance, turning double plays, making remarkable catches in the outfield and not letting the Blue Devils get anything going on offense after the first inning.

To start the game, Duke leadoff hitter Zac Morris roped a two-strike doubled down the right field line to put a runner in scoring position with no outs. Later in the Blue Devils' at-bat, freshman outfielder AJ Gracia knocked a hard-hit ground ball through the infield to score Morris.

Duke's next batter, Alex Stone, hit a grounder to Jaxon Willits that the freshman shortstop turned into a 6-4-3 double play to end the half inning.

After a leadoff walk from star centerfielder John Spikerman in the bottom of the first inning, the junior appeared to get hurt sliding into second base while attempting to steal. Spikerman, who originally looked to be safe, tumbled off of the bag in pain and was tagged out.

Spikerman came back into the game on defense in the second inning, sprinting to the warning track in left centerfield to catch a deep fly ball.

In the bottom of the second inning, Willits and Nicklaus walked to put runners on first and second with one out. Senior outfielder Kendall Pettis hit a sacrifice fly ball to right field that moved Willits to third and Rocco Garza-Gongora singled up the middle to score the true freshman and tie the game at one.

Freshman outfielder Jason Walk followed with a bases-clearing triple to score Nicklaus and Garza-Gongora and give Oklahoma a 3-1 lead.

Spikerman hit a deep shot to right field, but Gracia made an incredible catch against the wall to rob the Sooners' star of what would have been a home run and end the second inning.

With a runner in scoring position and two outs in the top of the third inning, Pettis made an incredible catch on deep fly ball into left field, slamming into the wall as he sprinted to make the play. The senior's defensive heroics saved a run and marked his second impressive snag of the contest.

The Sooners were able to load the bases in the bottom of the third inning, but Duke escaped the jam unscathed as Pettis went down looking with two outs.

In the fourth inning, Garza-Gongora and Walk were both hit by pitches, putting two runners on base with no outs. Oklahoma was unable to score once again, however, as Spikerman grounded into a fielder's choice before Bryce Madron flied out to left field and Garza-Gongora was thrown out at home trying to tag up on the same play.

Duke put two runners on base with just one out in its next at bat, but a big time strikeout from Stevens and a foul pop out killed the Blue Devils chances to score. OU managed to get runners at first and second with just one out in the bottom of the sixth, but Walk and Spikerman struck out in consecutive at-bats to end the inning.

The Sooners added another run in the bottom of the seventh inning when Michael Snyder hit a one-out double off the wall in left field, scoring Carmichael to push Oklahoma's lead to 4-1.

In the eighth inning, senior right hander Carson Atwood entered the game in relief of Stevens, giving up a double, a two-run homer and a single into the outfield and recording just one out before being replaced by sophomore right hander Malachi Witherspoon.

Witherspoon was able to retire the next two batters in order, sending the game to the bottom of the eighth inning with OU ahead 4-3.

With its season on the line in the top of the ninth inning, Duke was unable to muster any offense as Witherspoon swiftly retired the side to secure the game for Oklahoma.

OU's victory moves the team into the finals of the Norman Regional, where they will meet Connecticut on Sunday at 8:06 p.m. in a rematch of Saturday night's contest. If the Sooners can take down the Huskies in the second game of Sunday's doubleheader, they would play Connecticut again on Monday with a trip to the NCAA Super Regionals on the line.

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Randall Sweet

RANDALL SWEET

Randall is a recruiting analyst and staff writer at AllSooners focusing primarily on OU Football and the recruiting trail. Working as a journalist, Randall has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and high school sports across the state. A 2022 University of Oklahoma graduate, Randall hails from Lubbock, TX. While in college, Sweet wrote for the OU Daily in addition to working with Sooner Sports Pad and OU Nightly. Following his time at OU, Sweet served as the Communications Coordinator at Visit Oklahoma City before leaving to join the team at AllSooners. The West Texas native has bylines in the Norman Transcript and is a Staff Writer for Inside the Thunder. Randall holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. 

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