OU Baseball: Oklahoma Shocked by UConn in Norman Regional

The Sooners scored 14 runs on Friday, but the bats fell silent against the Huskies with ace left-hander Braden Davis on the mound.

Kendall Pettis / Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

NORMAN — With their best pitcher on the mound, Oklahoma’s bats went eerily quiet Saturday night — and the Sooners’ postseason took a pronounced downturn.

OU was shocked in a 4-1 loss to Connecticut at L. Dale Mitchell Park, a setback that sends the top-seeded Sooners (38-20) into the loser’s bracket and sets up No. 3-seed UConn (34-21) with a clearly defined path to the next round. 

OU scored 14 runs almost at will on Friday in a first-round victory over Oral Roberts, but offense was much harder to come by against UConn.

Huskies senior Stephen Quigley outpitched OU ace Braden Davis, scattering seven hits and nearly pitching a complete game, starting the ninth inning with a walk before coming off. 

Quigley said he utilized a changeup he hadn’t really used all season as well as a fastball on the inside part of the plate when his MO this year has been fastball away.

“They probably weren’t even looking that way,” Quigley said. “They were probably sharing information like, ‘This isn’t what we were told in the hitters’ meeting.’ … I think that’s what had them off their timing.”

A 3-seed storming to two upsets might sound shocking, but the Huskies and coach Jim Penders are not surprised in the least. Not when their starting lineup includes four graduate students, two seniors and two juniors. 

Penders looked at home run hero Luke Broadhurst and expressed why.

“This guy’s gonna be 26 in October,” Penders said. “I mean at 25, I was married, thinking about getting a house — and he's still getting to play college baseball. So he's my hero. I got a bunch of guys who can rent cars without their parents’ signatures. I mean, it's awesome because you're coaching men. 

“You know, we're gonna go back to the hotel and it's like I don't have to tell them to get in bed. That know that they gotta get in bed. … They're low-maintenance group. There’s no nonsense. You’re dealing with men and not boys.”

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OU coach Skip Johnson said that maturity factor shows when the Huskies are at the ballpark, and may help explain what happened to his squad.

“Maybe we were pressing a little bit,” Johnson said, “but that's part of the game you continue to grow on. That's an older team. I think four or five, maybe six or seven of them are graduate seniors. And they played a lot of baseball in their life. I think that guy (Quigley) has been in (college) baseball since 2019. And so, man it shows, the composure he had in front of a great crowd.” 

UConn advances to Saturday’s regional final, where they’ll wait for the winner of Sunday’s early game between OU and 2-seed Duke (39-19). The Blue Devils lost to the Huskies 4-1 on Friday. First pitch for that game is set for 8 p.m. and if  Connecticut wins, they’ll move onto next week’s super regional round against the winner of the Tallahassee Regional.

The Sooners meanwhile, fall into the loser’s bracket, where they’ll take on the Blue Devils at 2 p.m. Sunday at Mitchell Park. OU and Duke have never faced off in baseball.

Earlier Saturday, Duke eliminated Oral Roberts 6-2. OU beat ORU 14-0 on Friday night.

If Sunday night’s result forces a seventh game, that will unfold Monday at a time yet to be decided.

Saturday was a pitchers’ duel early between Davis and Quigley.

Davis blinked first when the Huskies took a 1-0 lead against him in the bottom of the third.

Davis retired eight of the first 10 hitters he faced and got two quick outs to start the third. He then started both Paul Tammaro and Broadhurst with an 0-2 count, but eventually walked them both back-to-back.

That set the table for cleanup hitter Korey Morton, who singled to left to bring Tammaro home and put the Huskies on the scoreboard.

Michael Snyder tried to answer in the top of the fourth with a one-out double down the left-field line, but Jackson Nicklaus and Scott Mudler flied out to kill the threat.

In the top of the fifth, John Spikerman hit a two-out double into the right-field corner, but he was stranded when Bryce Madron grounded out.

UConn put two runners on in the fifth, but Davis got a strikeout and a fly ball to get out of trouble still down just 1-0.

In the bottom of the sixth, OU’s ace left hander got his 10th strikeout and gave up his fifth hit, but Snyder handled a treacherous one-hopper and flawlessly started an inning-ending, 5-4-3 double play that sent the sellout crowd into a frenzy.

That momentum almost carried over to the OU bats as Mudler delivered a one-out hit to center, but   Rocco Garza-Gongora was robbed of an extra base hit when UConn first baseman Maddix Dalena snagged his line drive right over the base and easily doubled Mudler off the bag.

Davis went 5 1/3 innings against the Huskies before Johnson took him out. He struck out 10, walked three and left with runners at first and second.

Davis, who pitched just 16 2/3 innings as a freshman reliever at Sam Houston and was elevated to closer last year, when he threw 45 1/3 innings, had become almost unbeatable as OU’s Friday night workhorse this season. He started the year with a 2-3 record, but won his last seven decisions — including last week’s complete-game four-hit shutout victory over TCU in the Big 12 Tournament — before Saturday. But he ultimately allowed three earned runs and ended his string of consecutive victories.

After Davis’ exit, Broadhurst — UConn’s team’s leader in home runs, RBIs and slugging percentage — hit his 14th homer of the season, a three-run, line-drive bomb off Dylan Crooks that barely cleared the left-field wall to put the Huskies up 4-0.

Meanwhile, Quigley was masterful with his location. Quigley only had two strikeouts but didn’t issue any walks and allowed just three OU baserunners to reach scoring position before Kendall Pettis hit a leadoff home run to open the eighth inning to cut UConn’s lead to 4-1.

UConn put it away when closer Brady Afthim came on with one on and nobody out to finish the ninth inning. After Quigley walked Jaxon Willits and Afthim walked Snyder, Afthim got a pop foul in front of the Huskies dugout, a fly ball to left field and a line drive to second base to end it.

The Sooners are hosting their fourth regional at L. Dale Mitchell and their first since 2010, with regional titles in 2006 and 2010. This season’s tournament marks OU’s 41st all-time NCAA regional appearance and the third consecutive postseason for Oklahoma. This is UConn’s sixth straight regional trip.

Saturday’s OU-UConn game was just the third between the Sooners and Huskies, with UConn winning in 2012 at Eugene, OR, and OU winning the following year in the Blacksburg Regional at Virginia Tech.