OU Baseball: Oklahoma Opens NCAA Tournament by Rolling Oral Roberts

The Sooners got a big day offensively from several contributors throughout the lineup to advance to Saturday's regional semifinal against Connecticut.

Oklahoma's Bryce Madron / OU Baseball via Twitter/X

NORMAN — Let the postseason march begin.

Oklahoma opened the 2024 NCAA Tournament on Friday night with a comfortable 14-0 victory over Oral Roberts in a first-round game at the Norman Regional.

No. 9-ranked OU got a strong pitching performance from Kyson Witherspoon and the explosive Sooner lineup overwhelmed ORU hurlers with 17 hits, three home runs and seven extra base hits and thoroughly entertained the sellout crowd of 4,332 at L. Dale Mitchell Park, the fourth-highest ever in program history and the most ever for a postseason game.

"It was a good overall performance for our baseball team," OU coach Skip Johnson said.

OU advances to Saturday’s regional semifinal, where they’ll play 3-seed Connecticut (33-23), who beat 2-seed Duke in a 4-1 upset earlier Friday. First pitch is set for 8 p.m.

No. 4-seed ORU meanwhile, falls into the loser’s bracket, where they’ll take on the Blue Devils (39-19) at 2 p.m. Saturday at Mitchell Park.

Johnson’s decision to pitch backward — often a risky proposition in the NCAA Tournament — paid off handsomely as Witherspoon turned in one of his best performances of the season. It was OU's first postseason shutout in Mitchell Park history and the first overall since 2018.

/

Now the Sooners can bring out ace Braden Davis Saturday to face UConn. OU’s left-hander and usual Friday night starter comes into the weekend with a 9-3 record and 4.31 ERA and has won seven straight decisions. On the season, Davis has 107 strikeouts in just 85 2/3 innings.

OU can score with anyone in the NCAA field, so good pitching gives them a chance to make another memorable postseason run like they did two years ago.

"They won lot of games for a reason," said ORU coach Ryan Folmar. "They won the Big 12 for a reason. We understand that."

Folmar said he thought the Golden Eagles were close to getting into the OU bullpen early as ORU left seven baserunners stranded in the first three innings. He said it might have been "a completely different ballgame" if that happened.

Instead, Witherspoon fought through and the OU lineup got going -- a bad combination for ORU. John Spikerman, Bryce Madron and Easton Carmichael all had three hits, Carmichael, Madron and Scott Mudler each had three RBIs, and Mudler and Jaxon Willits each had two hits. Six OU hitters scored multiple runs.

"It’s good, top to bottom," Folmar said. "No gimme outs, no easy outs. Nowhere you can relax in that lineup. It’s really balanced, too."

"You don’t come up for air," Johnson said of Spikerman, Madron and Carmichael, "with those three guys sitting there (1-2-3 in the batting order) having quality at-bat after quality at-bat after quality at-bat."

With all that offense, if Davis throws like Witherspoon did on Friday, the Sooners will be on to Sunday’s regional finale.

Witherspoon got into and out of trouble in the first inning when Alex Rodgers singled, stole second and took third on a fly ball to the left field wall by Elijah Rodriguez. Witherspoon struck out Holden Breeze for the second out but then issued two walks before striking out Sam Thompson with a 96 mph fastball.

Spikerman quickly seized that momentum surge by driving a line drive into the deepest part of the park, 410 feet into the right-center gap for a triple. Madron then brought him home with a sacrifice fly to center to put the Sooners up 1-0.

Witherspoon booted a grounder to start the second inning and also issued a walk, but eventually struck out Rodriguez with another 96 mph heater to end the inning.

Oklahoma opened things up offensively in the third as Spikerman ripped a two-out single through the right side and Madron mashed a long home run into the crowd beyond the right field wall. It was Madron’s team-leading 12th home run of the season and gave OU a 3-0 lead.

Spikerman’s leadoff walk sparked another big inning for the Sooners in the fifth. Madron followed with a double to deep right field, and Carmichael sent everyone home with a three-run bomb to right that put the Sooners up 6-0.

Mudler made it 7-0 in the sixth with a solo home run to right field that chased ORU starter Jakob Hall (10-3).

Witherspoon (8-3), on the other hand, fought through control problems (five walks, just 63 strikes among his 114 pitches) and mowed down the Golden Eagles with nine strikeouts while only allowing one hit.

In the seventh, Michael Snyder smacked a one-out double into the gap in right-center, and came home on freshman Isaiah Lane’s infield single. Lane had entered in the top of the sixth as a defensive replacement at third base, and in the seventh inning made all three outs on ground balls before his RBI single. 

OU added two more as Mudler walked and Pettis beat out an infield single to load the bases for Spikerman, who dropped another RBI single into center field for a 10-0 lead.

Left hander Carter Campbell pitched the final three innings, yielded just two hits with two strikeouts and threw a perfect ninth. Campbell’s strong relief appearance was another good sign for Johnson’s pitching staff, as he threw 23 pitches and recorded 16 strikes. OU now has a nearly full bullpen behind Davis, who’s logged nine starts this season of at least six innings, including five of his last six.

The scoring continued in the eighth when Carmichael singled up the middle and went to third on Jaxon Willits’ single. Carmichael then came on on Snyder’s fielder’s choice to stretch the OU lead to 11-0. After Lane drew a walk, Jackson Nicklaus added to the show with an RBI single that scored Snyder for a 12-0 lead. Mudler’s two-out single to left scored Lane and Nicklaus and the Sooners led 14-0.

The Sooners are hosting a regional for the fourth time at L. Dale Mitchell, but the first since 2010. It’s OU’s 41st all-time NCAA regional appearance and the third straight year of postseason play for Johnson’s club.

ORU came into this season rebuilding after the program’s first College World Series appearance since 1978. That ORU team was coached by Larry Cochell, who later made three CWS trips and won national championship as head coach at OU.

Friday’s game was the fifth in NCAA Tournament play between the Sooners and Golden Eagles. OU beat ORU twice in the Oklahoma City Regional in 2000 and in the Norman Regional in 2010, while ORU won the meeting in the Fort Worth Regional in 2011.