OMAHA, Neb. — Oklahoma's surging baseball team led 8-0 after just 1½ innings in the NCAA Men's College World Series opener. Standing on the mound was Sooners ace Jake Bennett, just named Third-Team All-American by Perfect Game.
These were the circumstances No. 5-seeded Texas A&M faced early Friday afternoon.
Predictably, it wound up being too overwhelming as OU went on to post a 13-8 victory before a crowd of 23,886 at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb.
All this came against the red-hot Aggies (42-19), who entered the MCWS with a 26-7 record since April 5 and having won 16 of their last 19.
The Sooners (43-22) will now face Friday night's Notre Dame-Texas winner at 6 p.m. Sunday.
Bennett (10-3), who has won his last six starts and gone at least 6.0 innings 12 of 18 times, allowed five hits, four runs (all earned), while striking out three with no walks in six innings of work.
Meanwhile, OU roughed up A&M starter Nathan Dettmer (5-3) for seven runs (all earned) before he was pulled after just 1.2 innings. All told, the Aggies used six pitchers.
As if facing Bennett wasn't enough, the Sooners used the long ball twice to produce seven runs. Redshirt sophomore catcher Jimmy Crooks hit a 3-run homer in the second inning and freshman second baseman Jackson Nicklaus added a grand slam in the fourth.
"I mean, it's just one of those deals where it happened," OU fifth-year coach Skip Johnson said. "Our team identity is to be aggressive and to push the envelope a little bit. And I think we did that in some instances in the base running in the inning where we scored seven, taking that extra 90. That's who we are. The power is good. We know Jimmy has some power and Jack Nicklaus has had a really good season for a freshman. It's really good to see that happen."
Sooners redshirt senior centerfielder Tanner Tredaway went 3 for 6 at the plate with two runs scored and one RBI while lifting his season batting average to .375. Freshman rightfielder John Spikerman went 2 for 4 with two runs, two walks and an RBI.
OU finished with 11 hits, drew 10 walks and had three batters hit-by-pitch. Sophomore leftfielder Kendall Pettis was hit by two pitches. Unfortunately, designated hitter Brett Squires was lost for the season after the redshirt junior suffered a broken left hand when he was hit by a pitch in the third inning.
"They obviously took advantage," said first-year Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle, who joined the Aggies after coaching TCU the previous 18 seasons. "I think we gave up 19 free bases in the first four innings."
The Sooners jumped out to 1-0 lead in the first inning after Spikerman led off with a walk, advanced to third on redshirt sophomore shortstop Peyton Graham's single up the middle and then scored on redshirt sophomore first baseman Blake Robertson's groundout to short.
OU plated seven runs in the second inning, all with two outs. Nicklaus walked, Pettis was hit by a pitch for the first time, Spikerman singled and Graham drew a bases-loaded walk to score a run. Robertson hit a two-run single up the middle. Tredaway singled for an RBI.
The first batter to face Dettmer replacement Joseph Menefee was Crooks, who deposited the second pitch he saw over the right-field fence to make it 8-0. It was Crooks' eighth home run of the season.
The Sooners' largest lead came at 12-3 after Nicklaus' slam for his 11th homer this season.
OU led 12-4 when Bennett departed. Surprisingly, he was relieved by redshirt sophomore righthander David Sandlin, who entered the game having started 17 times in his 18 appearances this season.
Lasting just 1/3 of an inning, Sandlin allowed four runs (all earned), two hits and walked one in the bottom of the seventh as the Aggies pulled to within 12-8.
"I wanted to get David out there for an inning, just to get him out there," Johnson said. "No better time to get him out there – he's probably going to start the third game – to get him comfortable. Whatever happened, it didn't matter."
OU righthanded reliever Trevin Michael, a graduate transfer from Lamar, worked the final 2.2 innings to earn his 11th save of the season.
"Having Trevin as a safety net there," Johnson explained, "He's what we talk about. The guy can throw two pitches for strikes, even three at times. He can fill his position and he can hold runners. And he loves that moment. There's sometimes he wills that stuff on himself at times to be really competitive."
Schlossnagle said, "If you would have told me we were going to score eight runs against their Friday starter, Sandlin, who has been the Saturday guy, or weekend pitcher, and then the closer, I thought we would have had a good chance. But obviously we didn't pitch well. We didn't defend. Just gave up a lot of free bases. Then they got the big hit. You've got to credit them (with) the two big home runs when we set the table."
Still clinging to the 12-8 lead, OU got an insurance run in the top of the ninth when Spikerman singled up the middle to score pinch-hitter Sebastian Orduno, who opened the inning with a single. However, the Sooners failed to score again despite loading the bases with no outs.
"I was just trying to pitch with a lead, really, the whole time," Michael said. "I wasn't really trying to go in there and strike everybody out or anything like that. And it was really easy for me to settle in with a lead like that. I was assuming we were going to go put up some more runs in the ninth. Got another one run back. That's what our offense does. It's relentless. So, you can go throw down the middle because it doesn't matter because we're going to score runs and they're going to make plays behind you."