COLUMN: David Sandlin's Best Saved Oklahoma Pitching for CWS Championship Series
OMAHA – In the heat of downtown Omaha, in the heat of a championship chase, Oklahoma pitcher David Sandlin kept his cool.
Except for all those times he shouted and pumped his fist.
“I like to play with emotions,” Sandlin said. “I know sometimes that's not the best thing to do, but that's who I've been and who I always will be.”
It was the best thing for OU on Wednesday.
Sandlin’s performance under the scorching midday sun at Charles Schwab Field pushed the Sooners to a 5-1 victory over Texas A&M, eliminating the Aggies and sending OU to the national championship series against the winner of Wednesday night’s game between Ole Miss and Arkansas.
The first team to win twice over the weekend – Game 1 is 6 p.m. Saturday, Game 2 is 2 p.m. Sunday, and Game 3 (if necessary) is Monday at 6 p.m. – is college baseball’s national champ.
John E. Hoover / AllSooners
Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports
John E. Hoover / AllSooners
John E. Hoover / AllSooners
John E. Hoover / AllSooners
Things now set up a lot better for the Sooners’ pitching staff because of Sandlin.
“Today,” said catcher Jimmy Crooks, “he was just a bulldog on the mound.”
Sandlin’s start covered seven full innings. He gave up just one run on five hits and one walk and recorded a career-high in strikeouts. On his 100th and final pitch, he struck out his 12th A&M hitter. Coach Skip Johnson said Sandlin’s fastball location and slider movement were very good, and occasionally he followed a slider with a deceptive curveball. That kept the Aggies guessing. So did Sandlin consistently starting ahead in the count by throwing first-pitch strikes.
“He is just able to mix all of his pitches,” said A&M catcher Troy Claunch. “He was able to get ahead early with fastballs in the first half, and then next time around was able to mix and kind of threw whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. Hats off to him.”
In the fourth inning, the Aggies put their first two hitters on first and second, but Sandlin struck out the side – just like he did in the first inning – and came off exhorting his accomplishment with an emphatic fist pump.
He earned the moment.
“I think he was really good,” said Aggies coach Jim Schlossnagle. “He was executing pitches. He really had a good breaking ball going. He established his fastball enough to his glove side to where maybe he earned a few pitches that were off the plate, at least from my view.
“I just thought he had us on our heels the whole game. Credit to him and Skip.”
Had the Aggies won the game, Johnson said he’d have had to turn to ace lefty Jake Bennett in a winner-take-all game on Thursday. But A&M mustered no offense against the 6-foot-4 redshirt sophomore from Owasso, OK, via Eastern Junior College, and OU’s pitching is now at full strength for the weekend, with Bennett starting Saturday and Cade Horton starting Sunday.
“It's huge,” Johnson said. “Now Bennett can go on a full week's rest. They're used to doing that. Any time you get them off that, you kind of worry about it a little bit. We actually threw a bullpen for Bennett just in case he had to throw tomorrow, just to stay ahead of the game.
“Then Horton will have a full (week’s) rest going into his outing, probably the second game. Then we'll just get a cowboy hat and pull names out of it after that and go from there.”
Maybe even Sandlin could be available Monday if the championship series goes three games.
Earlier in the week, Johnson said it was good to get Sandlin a brief appearance in last Friday’s victory over the Aggies. It wasn’t pretty – in his first appearance of the season out of the bulllen, Sandlin got just one out and gave up four earned runs on two hits and a walk.
“He is not used to coming out of the pen, which some pitchers aren't,” Crooks said, “but he turned it around.”
After handcuffing the Aggies, Sandlin agreed that his short relief appearance paid big dividends.
“Absolutely,” Sandlin said. “Just got me ready for the atmosphere I was going to be in, and mentally prepare almost more for this game and trust everything I had. I think I tried a little too hard (Friday), and as coach Johnson says, you can't do that. You don't want to get geared up when I don't need to be.”
Sandlin’s last start wasn’t that great, either. In game two of the Blacksburg Super Regional against Virginia Tech, Sandlin lasted just 3 ⅔ innings, and gave up five earned runs on six hits and two walks as the Sooners lost 14-8.
But Sandlin had plenty of other quality starts this season. Wednesday, of course, was the best of them all.
“I mean, I felt pretty good,” Sandlin said. “I just trusted my preparation. Like I've been working towards it all year, and I feel like today was more muscle memory than anything up there on the mound. Just going out there and just executing, don't think about things too much.”