Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Down No. 4 Virginia Tech, Move One Win From CWS
One win away.
After an improbable come-from-behind win in the regional final against No. 13 Florida on Monday night, Oklahoma returned to action in the Super Regionals against the No. 4 Virginia Tech Hokies in the first game of a best-of-three series to determine a spot in the College World Series.
The Sooners, who have been red-hot for the better part of two months, kept the good times rolling once again on Friday beating Virginia Tech 5-4 at English Field at Atlantic Union Bank Park in Blacksburg, VA to take a 1-0 series lead.
Getting the start on the hill was OU ace Jake Bennett, who worked seven solid innings to put his team in position to win.
While four runs came across against the big left-hander, only one of them went in as earned against Bennett.
"I thought Jake was really good," head coach Skip Johnson said postgame. "(It was) a great environment to play in. Our offense kind of took over and let him settle in a little bit and make some quality pitches."
Unlike every game of regional play last week, it would be Oklahoma getting on the board first to start things in Blacksburg.
Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Blake Robertson plated a run poking a ball through the left side to score John Spikerman, making it 1-0 Sooners early.
Oklahoma then added two runs just one inning later, with left fielder Kendall Pettis and Spikerman picking up back-to-back RBI singles to extend the lead to 3-0 OU.
That would remain the score all the way into the sixth inning, where the Sooners would strike for another pair of runs.
Brett Squires and Pettis each came through with RBI knocks to have Oklahoma holding a commanding 5-0 advantage.
On the day, the 7-9 hitters for Oklahoma would combine for six of the team's 12 hits.
"We're just a good team," Pettis said. "One through nine can all hit. No matter who's at the top of the lineup or at the bottom of the lineup, we just compete for pitches. In order for us to become a great team, we know the whole team has to contribute."
But, the Hokies bats could only be kept down for so long.
In the bottom of the sixth, right fielder Carson Jones connected on a two-run home run to center field to cut into the deficit and make it 5-2.
One inning later, VT would move even closer with another two-run shot.
This one, off the bat of left fielder Jack Hurley, came just moments after a two-out defensive error allowed the inning to stay alive.
Clinging to a one-run lead, Oklahoma turned to their closer Trevin Michael to try and get the final six outs.
Michael would certainly get the job done, retiring the final six Hokies in order with four strikeouts to finish the job.
"He (Michael) kept them off balance," Johnson said. "That's the biggest thing that he does is try to keep them off balance. I thought he did well just throwing strike one and trying to get ahead."
The win improves Oklahoma to 41-21 on the season and moves them to within one win of reaching the College World Series.
"It's just one more," Pettis said. "We aren't really trying to focus on Omaha, or whatever. We're just focused on tomorrow. We just got take it pitch by pitch, step by step."
The Sooners will go for the Super Regionals win on Saturday at 11 a.m. CT back in Blacksburg, with the game broadcast set for ESPNU.