Oklahoma Baseball: Sooners Struggle Offensively in Loss to No. 13 Florida

Clinching a spot within the subsequent spherical must wait one other day. 

After defeating regional host Florida on Saturday evening, Oklahoma returned to motion on Sunday within the ultimate of the Gainesville Regional towards the No. 13-ranked Gators.

An OU win meant a visit to the Tremendous Regionals subsequent weekend, a loss meant the 2 groups would meet once more in a winner-take-all sport on Monday.

Sadly for Skip Johnson’s squad, the latter of these two choices would be the actuality because the Sooners fell to Florida 7-2 on Sunday evening at Condron Household Ballpark in Gainesville, FL.

Getting the beginning for Oklahoma was right-hander Cade Horton, who was fairly efficient working into the seventh inning permitting simply two earned runs.

His exhausting work would solely get him a no resolution, nevertheless, because the OU bats struggled to string a lot collectively all through the evening.

The star of the sport was an unlikely one, as Florida freshman left-hander Carsten Finnvold stole the present in Gainesville.

After starter Timmy Manning loaded the bases with no outs within the first inning, the Gators turned to the younger Finnvold to try to escape the mess.

Not solely would he handle that, however he would retire the following 16 Oklahoma hitters in succession earlier than the Sooners would lastly report their first hit on a single by Peyton Graham.

Finnvold would end his day working 9 full innings permitting simply two runs and 5 hits, a glowing outing for the freshman when his crew desperately wanted it. 

However, regardless of the gradual offensive begin, OU was nonetheless solely down two runs coming into the sixth because of the work of Horton.

As soon as Graham related on his single, the floodgates opened a bit for the Sooners as they ripped off three straight hits (4 in whole with Graham) from Blake Robertson, Tanner Tredaway and Jimmy Crooks to attain two runs and even the sport at 2-2.

Oklahoma seemingly took all of the momentum with them into the seventh inning, however the Gators rapidly put an finish 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 show to be the killer portion of the evening for the Sooners, as Florida struck for 4 runs within the body to increase their benefit to 7-2 and in essence put the sport on ice. 

The loss drops the Sooners to 39-21 on the season and delays their hopes of a Tremendous Regionals berth for an additional day.

Oklahoma and Florida will now meet yet one more time in a winner-take-all matchup on Monday at midday CT again at Condron Household Ballpark in Gainesville.

The winner will transfer on to Tremendous Regionals, the loser’s season will likely be over.