College World Series Wednesday Results: Texas A&M Suffers The SchLOSS
The “Greatest Show on Dirt” continues in Omaha. Eight teams began the journey last week. That list is down to three remaining teams, one of which will be the national champion. The semifinals started on Wednesday, with the remaining teams in both brackets playing. In the early game, Oklahoma defeated Texas A&M. This was the Aggies’ second loss, so they were eliminated. In the evening game, Arkansas met Ole Miss. The Razorbacks squeaked by with a 3-2 win to force a second game between those two that will be played on Thursday afternoon.
With Texas A&M eliminated, this year’s national champion will not be one of the 16 national seeds. A&M was the last remaining team in that group.
Here’s a recap of both of Wednesday’s games:
Game 11:
Oklahoma (3-0) 5 - #5 Texas A&M (2-2) 1 –
Texas A&M is eliminated.
Oklahoma continues its hot streak. They got hot in mid-April and haven’t slowed down since. They did not lose a weekend series during the last month of the regular season. Then won the Big 12 Tournament. They went on the road for the postseason eliminating No. 13 Florida and then No. 4 Virginia Tech. The Aggies became the latest national seed to be eliminated by the Sooners. The Sooners have won 12 of their last 14 games and 18 of their last 23. They rank second in NCAA postseason runs with 80. They are 3-0 in the MCWS and have never trailed in any game in the tournament.
Oklahoma had a decisive win over Texas A&M thanks to starting pitcher David Sandlin. He threw 100 pitches over 7.0 innings and allowed five hits and one run. He had a career-high 12 strikeouts. It’s the second straight game for an OU pitcher to have a career-high strikeout game. Cade Horton had 11 strikeouts against Notre Dame on Sunday, coincidentally with 100 pitches thrown. The Sooner pitching staff has thrown double-digit strikeouts in six of their last ten games.
"I thought Sandlin set the tone early executing one pitch at a time," Sooners head coach Skip Johnson said. "That's what we talked about. We practiced it, actually, the other day in the shadowing. And Jimmy getting a big hit, separating the game. When you get to separate in the game early, your breaking ball gets better, your fastball command gets better, getting a lead early."
The Sooners are trying for an accomplishment no school has ever accomplished – winning the Men’s and Women's College World Series in the same season. The Sooners softball team brought home the Natty a couple of weeks ago. They are the third program to put a team in the finals of both MCWS and WCWS – Florida did this twice and UCLA once.
For Texas A&M, the two wins in the MCWS were the most in program history. In their previous appearances, the Aggies had a total of two wins in Omaha. Head coach Jim Schlossnagle has definitely turned this program around in his first year as skipper after a long career at TCU.
Winning pitcher – David Sandlin (9-4); Losing pitcher – Ryan Prager (1-4
Game 12:
Arkansas (3-1) 3 – Ole Miss (2-1) 2
The two teams will meet again on Thursday.
It was the closest game of the entire MCWS. And it certainly provided the suspense, all the way to the last pitch. Arkansas was playing a must-win game. Ole Miss had yet to lose in the MCWS. Had Arkansas lost, they would have been eliminated. By beating conference foe Ole Miss, they forced a second semifinal game which will be played Thursday.
Both teams had runs in the second inning. Arkansas took the lead in the 5th thanks to a Brady Slavens home run and another run in the 8th.
Ole Miss entered the bottom of the 9th down 3-1. A single and two consecutive hit by pitches loaded the bases for the Rebels with no outs. They had a great opportunity to take the lead and advance to the championship round. Arkansas changed pitchers. Zach Morris came in and threw a strikeout and then a fly-out. With two outs, down by two, and bases loaded, Justin Bench came to the plate. He got a base hit through the left-field side. Ole Miss scored the runner from third, but no other batter advanced. With bases still loaded, Jacob Gonzalez came to bat. He made contact on a 2-2 count, but it was a fly-out to left field, ending the game.
Winning pitcher – Hagen Smith (7-2); Losing pitcher – John Gaddis (3-2); Save - Zach Morris (1)
Next up: Arkansas and Ole Miss play a second semifinal game on Thursday at 3 p.m. CT. The winner of that game advances to the championship round. They will face Oklahoma in the best-of-three series. The first game is Saturday.
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