Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Struggle Offensively in Loss to No. 13 Florida
Clinching a spot in the next round will have to wait another day.
After defeating regional host Florida on Saturday night, Oklahoma returned to action on Sunday in the final of the Gainesville Regional against the No. 13-ranked Gators.
An OU win meant a trip to the Super Regionals next weekend, a loss meant the two teams would meet again in a winner-take-all game on Monday.
Unfortunately for Skip Johnson’s squad, the latter of those two options will be the reality as the Sooners fell to Florida 7-2 on Sunday night at Condron Family Ballpark in Gainesville, FL.
Getting the start for Oklahoma was right-hander Cade Horton, who was quite effective working into the seventh inning allowing just two earned runs.
His hard work would only get him a no decision, however, as the OU bats struggled to string much together throughout the night.
The star of the game was an unlikely one, as Florida freshman left-hander Carsten Finnvold stole the show in Gainesville.
After starter Timmy Manning loaded the bases with no outs in the first inning, the Gators turned to the young Finnvold to try and escape the mess.
Not only would he manage that, but he would retire the next 16 Oklahoma hitters in succession before the Sooners would finally record their first hit on a single by Peyton Graham.
Finnvold would finish his day working nine complete innings allowing just two runs and five hits, a sparkling outing for the freshman when his team desperately needed it.
But, despite the slow offensive start, OU was still only down two runs entering the sixth thanks to the work of Horton.
Once Graham connected on his single, the floodgates opened a bit for the Sooners as they ripped off three straight hits (four in total with Graham) from Blake Robertson, Tanner Tredaway and Jimmy Crooks to score two runs and even the game at 2-2.
Oklahoma seemingly took all the momentum with them into the seventh inning, but the Gators quickly put an end to that.
Florida retook the lead with Sterlin Thompson and B.T. Riopelle getting back-to-back one-out hits to make it 3-2 UF.
The eighth inning would then prove to be the killer portion of the night for the Sooners, as Florida struck for four runs in the frame to extend their advantage to 7-2 and in essence put the game on ice.
The loss drops the Sooners to 39-21 on the season and delays their hopes of a Super Regionals berth for another day.
Oklahoma and Florida will now meet one more time in a winner-take-all matchup on Monday at noon CT back at Condron Family Ballpark in Gainesville.
The winner will move on to Super Regionals, the loser’s season will be over.