The college spring sports season is coming to a close with just a few more orders of business to take care of. One of those orders of business is the College Baseball World Series held every year in Omaha, Nebraska. And over the weekend, Oklahoma found out they would indeed be represented in the CWS as Tulsa’s Oral Roberts clinched their spot in the World Series last night in Eugene, Oregon!
While this year’s NCAA Tournament was a rather disappointing one so far for the state of Oklahoma with OU and OSU both exiting in the Regional, one Oklahoma school did manage to make their way into the Super Regional round. Oral Roberts made it to the 2nd weekend of the NCAA Tournament thanks to winning 3 games at the Stillwater Regional where the Golden Eagles rattled off 3 straight wins (against Oklahoma State, Washington, and Dallas Baptist) and punched their ticket to the Super Regional. Next up, a date with the Oregon Ducks in a best 2 out of 3 series.
Things were anything but easy for the Golden Eagles in Eugene. Game one saw ORU get out to an 8-0 lead after an 8-run 3rd inning…only to see the Ducks chip away at that lead and eventually would steal the 9-8 win away thanks to a walk-off single in the bottom of the 9th. Not a lot of teams would respond to blowing an 8-run lead the way the Golden Eagles did. Just 24 hours later, ORU returned the favor and rallied from a late 7-4 deficit to win Game 2 thanks to a walk-off 2-run single in the bottom of the 9th to win 8-7. So the stage was then set for last night’s Game 3. Winner moves on to the CWS…the loser goes home.
Things didn’t get off to the best start for ORU as the Ducks would score 3 runs in the bottom of the 1st inning to take a 3-1 lead early. The Golden Eagles would trail 3-2 after the 3rd inning. Then the 4th inning came and ORU would get to work. The Golden Eagles put up 3 runs in the top of the 4th to take the lead and they would not let that lead go. Oregon would get as close as 5-4 in the 6th inning, but ORU would respond in the 7th by adding 3 more runs to push the lead to 4. ORU would add 3 more runs in the 9th inning to blow the game wide open and the deficit was just too much for the Ducks to overcome. The Golden Eagles would punch their ticket to Omaha and will await the schedule release to see who will be their first opponent in the College World Series. I’m not entirely sure when that schedule release will take place but I assume it will be tomorrow after we find out who will be occupying the final 2 spots in the CWS tonight as #8 Stanford will take on Texas in Game 3 of their Super Regional and Tennessee will face Southern Mississippi in Game 3 of that Super Regional tonight with the winners of each game advancing to the CWS.
This year’s trip to Omaha marks the Golden Eagles first birth in the CWS in 45 years (1978). Oral Roberts currently sits with a record of 51-12.
