Oklahoma outpitches Virginia Tech, holds off late rally to claim Game 1
BLACKSBURG — Oklahoma took advantage of Virginia Tech’s early pitching struggles, then held on in the last two innings to edge the Hokies 5-4 in Game 1 of the Blacksburg Super Regional on Friday at English Field.
Unlike last weekend, when Virginia Tech scored 46 runs in three games and swept through its regional, the Hokies (44-13) now must go 2-0 over the next two days to make sure it’s them and not OU that will be moving on to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, next weekend.
The Sooners (41-21) continued their postseason hot streak, winning for the eighth time in nine games, including last week’s Gainesville Regional and the Big 12 Tournament, in which OU won all four games it played in that event two weeks ago.
“We’re not thinking about Omaha yet,” Oklahoma coach Skip Johnson said. “We’re thinking
about tomorrow and continuing to do what we were able to do today.”
And behind starting pitcher Jake Bennett, who held the potent Virginia Tech offense scoreless through the first five innings, the Sooners got out to a 5-0 lead before Hokies right fielder Carson Jones connected on a two-run home run that sailed over the center-field fence with one out in the bottom of the sixth.
Virginia Tech (44-13) cut the lead to 5-4 in the seventh when Bennett surrendered another two-run homer — this time off the bat of Jack Hurley, who also went to deep center. Both of the Hokies’ home runs came following fielding errors that meant that only one of the runs that came while Bennett was in the game was earned.
Bennett and reliever Trevin Michael, who came in for Oklahoma
in the eighth, combined to strike out 12 Virginia Tech batters and stranded seven runners. Michael got all six of the Hokies batters he faced, striking out four.
“This was definitely not the outcome we were looking for,” Virginia Tech coach John Szefc said. “Bennett was real good today, and then Michael was just as good.”
The Hokies had to make the first major adjustment of the game when starting pitcher Griffin Green was taken out after facing just seven batters in one inning, plus two batters in the top of the second. After Green hit both Wallace Clark and Jackson Nicklaus to start the inning, Szefc went to the bullpen..
The first inning was also a struggle for Green, who walked Oklahoma leadoff man John Spikerman, who eventually scored on a single by Blake Robertson.
After getting into at least the sixth inning in four consecutive starts for Virginia Tech in April,
Green has registered an out past the third inning just one time. In his past five starts, he gave up 23 hits and 18 earned runs while walking seven, hitting three batters and striking out 16.
Szefc, who said Green has been hampered by a finger
problem on his throwing hand, decided to make the change to left-hander Henry Weycker to change the momentum of the game. Although the Sooners did score twice in the inning, Weycker calmed things down for Virginia Tech, going the next 4 ⅔ innings.
OU got two runs off of Weycker in the top of the sixth to make it 5-0, but the sophomore
believed the combination of his performance and the stronger offensive performance in the later innings gave the Hokies a better mindset going into today’s noon win-or-go-home Game 2.
“We’ve been here before — in our ACC series with Pittsburgh and Louisville,” Weycker said. “We came back to win those series. Everyone’s calm and in a good place right now.”