Oklahoma Freshman Xander Mercurius Isn't Afraid of the Moment, or the Georgia Lineup

OMAHA, NE — One freshman got the job done. Why not another?

Oklahoma coach Skip Johnson said Saturday night he would likely start another rookie on the mound in the Sooners’ next game.

That game is Monday night, 6 p.m., against No. 3 national seed Georgia, and after practice Sunday at Bellevue East High School, Johnson confirmed again that tonight’s starter will indeed be another freshman: Xander Mercurius.

In Saturday’s 9-0 romp over No. 7 Alabama, Johnson turned the opener over to freshman Cord Rager, and he threw seven shutout innings.

Can Mercurius — the younger of OU’s pitching brothers — replicate Rager’s success against the most prolific lineup in the country?

To his credit, Mercurius doesn’t sound all that anxious about his opportunity. He was asked Thursday if he’s always been fearless on the mound.

“Yeah. I mean, I'm not scared of nobody,” he said. “I mean, I'm not the tallest guy out there. But I go out there and do what I do.”

Mercurius’ season statistics don’t catch anyone’s eye. He’s 0-2 with a 5.82 earned run average in 43 1/3 innings pitched. He has 47 strikeouts (great), but also has given up 20 walks (not bad, but not great).

But Johnson certainly isn’t hung up on Mercurius’ season stats — he’s a freshman after all. And neither is Mercurius.

He wasn't scared last week as the Sooners blew out No. 15 seed Kansas at the Lawrence Super Regional.

Mercurius earned his third consecutive start (his only starts of the season) and put in four sharp innings: three hits scattered, one run allowed, six strikeouts and two walks in a 13-2 OU victory.

The impressive part of that: he pitched three innings on Sunday night after a rain delay and before the game was interrupted and postponed, then came back Monday and pitched another inning.

He threw 65 pitches over the span of about 16 hours.

“What Xander did the other day, people don't look at him — he threw really, really good innings,” Johnson said. “It's pouring down rain. The NCAA doesn't know what we're going to do. We stayed there until 11:00, 11:30 at night because we don't know if we're going to play or not. We're trying to figure it out; we can't figure it out. We go home (to the hotel).

“For him to throw that inning, that inning when we came back, was really big. It was really big, because it settled us down as a team. We got some more big hits, and we're here today.”

That came after he went 5 2/3 against No. 2 national seed Georgia Tech in the Atlanta Super Regional. He was knocked around a little — five earned runs on seven hits (three home runs) and three walks — but he also had plenty of moments of success (career-high eight strikeouts).

His first start of the year came in the season finale against Tennessee at Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City: five innings, four earned runs (five total) on six hits and two walks but also six Ks.

Before that, his first 15 collegiate appearances were out of the bullpen.

But as Johnson said at CWS Media Day Thursday, these guys are no longer freshmen at this point of the season. Not when a team like Georgia is staring you down in Omaha.

“Georgia is a really good team,” Mercurius said. “They got a lot of big guys on there, big dogs, and something I've never faced before, you know. I can't wait, honestly, it's gonna be great.”

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Mercurius charted pitches Saturday for Rager’s start, and he was profoundly impressed by how Rager — again, a freshman on the game’s biggest stage — performed on the field and comported himself in between innings.

If Rager can pull off that kind of showing, Mercurius believes he can have similar success.

“I mean it was a magical performance, you know,” Mercurius said. “Just something you watch and you're like, ‘He's really good. He’s eally good.’ And it's fun to watch for sure.

“I mean, I'm doing the chart, and I'm just looking, I’m just like — ’He’s at 46 pitches after four innings. That's really good.’ … I thought he was gonna go the whole game at this point.

“ … He's just calm. That's all he is in the dugout, you know? At the end of the game, he was moving around a little bit, keeping the blood flowing, but I mean, he was looking great, he was poised and all that.”

Mercurius also got to chart older brother L.J. Mercurius, who came in and closed with two scoreless innings to preserve OU’s first CWS shutout in 75 years.

L.J. opened the regular season as the No. 2 starter, while Xander was in the pen. Their roles are reversed now, but they’re both just doing what Johnson asks of them to help the team.

“It was great,” Mercurius said. “I mean, I love watching L.J. pitch because — actually, these past three weeks, he's been awesome. Just going out there, just handling business, you know? He might give up a hit, but he’s flushing it, he's getting back on the mound, he looks really good, poised and all that kind of stuff.”

If things get sideways against the Georgia lineup — Georgia ranks No. 4 in the nation in team batting average (.324), No. 1 in home runs (175, or 68 more than the next CWS participant, Ole Miss), No. 4 in team on-base percentage (.436) and No. 2 in slugging percentage (.623) — Johnson will have a plan for the bullpen. And he’ll have everyone available but Rager.

But like Mercurius said, don’t be afraid of the Bulldogs’ prodigious bats.

In those same four offensive categories, Georgia Tech ranked No. 1, No. 1, No. 3 and No. 1 — and the Sooner pitchers came out of that regional just fine.

“I trust my stuff,” he said. “I know I'm pretty good.”

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