NORMAN — On Friday night, Northwest Florida State College transfer Kyson Witherspoon made his first appearance in the NCAA Tournament, starting for Oklahoma against Oral Roberts.

Witherspoon and the Sooners’ easily took care of the Golden Eagles, notching a commanding 14-0 victory behind an excellent outing from the sophomore right hander and a barrage of extra base hits from OU’s offense.

Head coach Skip Johnson announcing Witherspoon as the starter on Thursday afternoon came as a bit of a surprise, as junior left hander Braden Davis has served as OU’s Friday night starter over the back half of the season.

Johnson’s decision ended up paying off, however, as Witherspoon threw six innings, striking out nine batters and allowing just one hit and zero runs. In addition to the Jacksonville, FL, product’s masterful performance, the Sooners will also have Davis available for their Saturday night contest against Connecticut, who defeated Duke 4-1 on Friday afternoon.

While ORU struggled to hit Witherspoon from the first pitch, the talented sophomore struggled to control his pitches early on, walking five batters in the first three innings. Despite putting at least two runners on base in each of the first three innings, Witherspoon was able to use his fastball to get out of the jam each time.

“Credit to (Witherspoon), man, we had a lot of traffic those first three innings,” Oral Roberts head coach Ryan Folmar said after the game. “We needed that one swing, I thought we were a swing or two away from getting in the bullpen early. After the third inning, he settled in, found the zone a lot more. The slider was really good, he’s able to command it. Again, when you talk about opportunities, we had plenty of them early, and we couldn’t take advantage of those.”

Oral Roberts left seven runners on base in the the first three innings alone, as Witherspoon tallied five strikeouts in the same span to keep the Golden Eagles off the scoreboard.

As Folmar mentioned, Witherspoon settled in during the fourth inning, gaining more command on the mound and closing out his final three innings with zero hits, zero walks and four strikeouts. Nine strikeouts is Witherspoon’s second highest total of the season and his six innings on the mound mark the transfer pitcher’s fourth time throwing six or more innings this year.

“Hopefully I can keep settling in a lot earlier than that,” Witherspoon said. “Just at the beginning, trying to do a little bit too much with my pitches. Trying to work around the zone too much and just got to execute my pitches. Throw it, let them work, and that’s what I did at the end.” 

Johnson commended his pitcher’s gutsy performance, saying that Folmar was correct in assuming OU would have turned to its bullpen had the Golden Eagles been able to get their bats going early on. With Witherspoon able to get multiple key strikeouts whenever ORU put runners in scoring position, however, the Sooners’ head ball coach didn’t have to bring in a reliever until the seventh inning.

“It could’ve went either way, and that’s the thing about baseball,” Johnson said. “They really separated balls from strikes, took their walks when they needed to, but (Witherspoon) made big pitches with two outs. He had two big punch outs with men on base. I mean, (Folmar) is exactly right, but (Witherspoon) made the difference when he settled in and located a couple pitches with two strikes to get him out of the inning, which was really huge. He did it last week in Arlington (at the Big 12 Tournament) and it shows you how big his heart is, because you pitch with your head and your heart. You know, his stuff is his stuff, what’s going to get him to the next level is going to be his heart.” 

With runners on second and third in the first inning, Witherspoon recorded a massive strikeout to end the at-bat. In the second, ORU loaded the bases, but Witherspoon struck out Elijah Rodriguez to once again escape the jam unscathed.

Oral Roberts was able to get runners on first and second base in the third inning before Witherspoon slammed the door shut on the Golden Eagles for a third time, striking out Cameron LaLiberte to kill ORU’s scoring chances.

Witherspoon’s impressive outing in his first-ever NCAA Tournament game is a good sign for OU, who has been solid on offense all year, but struggled at times on the mound. If Davis and Witherspoon are both able to raise to the occasion and perform well in the postseason, Oklahoma will have a chance to not only win the Norman Regional, but advance to Omaha for the second time in three years.

Next up, Oklahoma is set to face Connecticut at 8 p.m. on Saturday night from L. Dale Mitchell Park. With Witherspoon throwing over 100 pitches on Friday night, Davis, who has developed into the team’s ace, should start on the bump against the Huskies.