The Sooners fought till the bitter end, but ultimately ran out of steam and pitchers in the decisive final game of the Norman regional.
And as they close the book on a campaign that brought a Big 12 regular-season title and a No. 9 national seed in the NCAA tournament, they'll no doubt spend the coming days and weeks tormented by the thought of what could have been.
Oklahoma's memorable season came to an unfortunate and premature end Monday night, as the crimson bats couldn't get anything going in a blowout loss to UConn. Behind a pair of timely homers and a series of phenomenal defensive plays, the Huskies coasted to a 7-1 upset of the host Sooners at L. Dale Mitchell Park.
OU had managed to stave off elimination twice on Sunday, nabbing a 4-3 victory over Duke and a 6-4 win over UConn behind a pair of stellar pitching performances. Left-hander Grant Stevens gave the Sooners seven frames of one-run ball in the afternoon tilt with the Blue Devils, and when night fell, reliever Jett Lodes stole the show. The senior right-hander worked seven fantastic innings of relief, surrendering just one run on three hits after UConn chased Oklahoma starter Brendan Girton in the second inning.
With top starters Braden Davis, Kyson Witherspoon and Grant Stevens already burned, Skip Johnson decided to attack the Huskies with a bullpen arm on Monday night. After throwing 12 pitches in a brief appearance Sunday, right-handed reliever Carson Atwood drew the start for Oklahoma. Atwood and UConn starter Gabe Van Emon traded zeroes for the first three innings, but the Huskies got on the board in the top of the fourth via a Paul Tammaro single and a two-run homer from Korey Morton. With two outs in the frame, Atwood recorded what ought to have been the third out, whiffing Tyler Minick on a breaking ball in the dirt. But Oklahoma catcher Scott Mudler couldn't handle it cleanly, and then threw wildly to first. The ball rolled deep into the right-field corner and Minick advanced all the way to third.
Johnson immediately pulled Atwood for southpaw Carter Campbell, but UConn first baseman Maddix Dalena greeted Campbell with a blistering two-run shot to right, and the Huskies thus opened up a 4-0 lead.
After the Sooners couldn't answer in their half of the fourth, Campbell ran into more trouble in the top of the fifth, as he issued a leadoff walk to T.C. Simmons. A groundout moved Simmons to second, and Campbell committed a balk that allowed Simmons to advance to third. Johnson made another change, going back to the bullpen for hard-throwing righty Ryan Lambert. But Lambert couldn't stem the tide, as he walked Tammaro and allowed back-to-back RBI singles to Luke Broadhurst and Morton. He eventually worked out of the jam, but the Huskies had increased the lead to 6-0. They'd add another run in the eighth inning on an RBI single from Simmons to pad the margin.
Oklahoma had no answer for Van Emon on the mound, as the southpaw worked into the eighth inning and thoroughly powered down the vaunted Oklahoma bats. He departed after recording the first out of the eighth, with a final line of five hits, two walks and two strikeouts. UConn righty Stephen Quigley, who had earned the win against Oklahoma on Saturday with eight innings of one-run ball, entered the game to try and secure the Huskies' trip to super regionals. He got two quick outs to end the frame, and after OU reliever Will Carsten worked a scoreless top of the ninth, the Sooners mounted one last-ditch effort in the bottom half. Easton Carmichael and Michael Snyder singled to open the frame, and Jaxon Willits reached on an error to load the bases. But Quigley induced a double-play ball from Jackson Nicklaus, which plated the Sooners' only run of the night, and Anthony Mackenzie grounded out to end the game and Oklahoma's season.
UConn will now head to Tallahassee and take on Florida State in super regional play, with a chance to advance to the College World Series for the fifth time in school history and the first time since 1979. Meanwhile, the offseason begins for Oklahoma, and the Sooners are immediately faced with the uncomfortable reality of several major losses. They had all the pieces to make a run to Omaha here in 2024, but after falling short of that goal, they'll have to reload in a major way. The program will lose at least four starters to graduation in Snyder, Mackenzie, right fielder Bryce Madron and left fielder Kendall Pettis. It's also a possibility that star center fielder John Spikerman and ace left-hander Braden Davis, both juniors, opt for the MLB draft.
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