Tri-Parish arm powers Tigers into Super Regionals
June 4, 2013
Grand Isle: Open for Business
June 4, 2013
LSU’s trip to the College World Series is nowhere near certain.
Their opponent can play with the best of them.
Oklahoma will head into Alex Box Stadium this weekend red-hot – the winners of eight-straight games.
The Sooners swept through the Big 12 Tournament undefeated with four-straight wins.
They followed that up this past weekend, rolling through the Blacksburg Regional, beating Coastal Carolina, Connecticut and then Virginia Tech in the Championship game.
“This weekend, we were challenged,” Sooners coach Sunny Golloway said. “To come out of this as the champions, I think it truly prepares us to move on.”
In Oklahoma, the Tigers have drawn an opponent with elite pitching.
Their best is arguably the premier pitcher in all of college baseball.
The Sooners showcase elite ace Jonathan Gray – a contender to be the No. 1 overall pick in this week’s MLB Draft.
Gray earned his place at the top of the draft boards this year by posting a 10-2 record with a 1.59 ERA. He struck out 138 hitters in 119 innings pitched.
In the Regional, Gray was touched for three runs in the first two innings by Coastal Carolina.
But he recorded and posted seven-straight shutout innings in a complete game win. Gray had 11 striekouts and just one walk in the victory.
“We almost weren’t going to send him back out there (in the ninth),” Golloway said. “But he said he really felt good. I just let him finish it up, and you know what was amazing was what I was told after the game. The last pitch, Gray told me, ‘Oh, I let that one rip, and it was 102 miles per hour.’”
While Gray slings fire at his opponents, the Sooners also have another elite pitcher at their disposal.
Oklahoma’s No. 2 starter is Dillon Overton. He’s not as imposing as Gray, but is still effective. In 86 and two-thirds innings this season, Overton posted a 9-2 record with a 2.91 ERA.
If the game gets into the late innings, the Sooners also employ an elite closer in Jacob Evans, who is 7-2 on the year with a 1.73 ERA with nine saves.
If the Sooners are able to get outs, their pesky offense will make contact and string together runs.
Oklahoma’s offense is led by Matt Oberste, who leads the team in every statistical category.
The slugger owns a .376 batting average with 11 home runs and 60 RBI. He is also a threat on the bases and has 12 steals on the season.
Besides Oberste, the Sooners also employ a bevy of contact hitters. Max White owns a .313 average, while Craig Aikin, Anthony Hermelyn and Garrett Carey own .291, .285 and .281 averages, respectively.
The battle lines have been drawn and the first team to record two wins will head to Omaha for the right to compete for a national championship.
But just because the Sooners entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed doesn’t mean that one should label them a pushover.
LSU coach Paul Mainieri knows that the Sooners are among the hottest teams in America.
They are more than capable of representing themselves well this weekend at the Box.
“We are going to have a great opponent come in next weekend,” Mainieri said.
Oklahoma ace Jonathan Gray fires a pitch during the Sooners’ NCAA Tournament Regional game this weekend. Gray is one of the best players in college baseball.
