OMAHA -- Please forgive them for crashing the party. Initially they weren't even going to receive invitations. A few weeks ago they were still checking their inbox for an invite to the postseason. Fast forward and Oklahoma is one win away from a national championship appearance following a 6-2 win Sunday night at Charles Schwab Field Omaha.
The latest performance offered a full arsenal of what led them here. Cade Horton kept Notre Dame off balance, striking out a career-high 11. Oklahoma caused chaos on the base paths. And Trevin Michael turned off the lights.
Across the diamond in the visiting dugout it reminded Notre Dame head coach Link Jarrett of his own squad. An Irish team that ran through No.1 Tennessee en route to Omaha and opened with a win over Texas.
"That ability they had to finish us didn't give us enough opportunities to truly threaten them. When you punch out 14 times, you're forcing them to record 13 outs in the field. If it's not in play, there's no chance that that little thing falls in or that ground ball works through there," he said.
"So they did a very good job of doing some of the things that you have obviously seen us do. But the punch-outs, if I say it again -- I have probably said it a hundred times, to me that was just the difference. And their management of finishing our hitters was better than ours to them."
Oklahoma scored two runs in the third on Tanner Tredaway and Wallace Clark RBI singles. Then three in the fifth with two runs coming in on a Carson Putz throwing error and a Jackson Nicklaus RBI single scoring Clark. Oklahoma led 5-0 through five.
The kind of chaos this Oklahoma team has made a living off of in recent weeks. Taking advantage of situational baseball in the postseason. Making teams pay with a confident two strike approach at the plate.
"That's kind of our motto. We want to battle for our team, especially with runners on in scoring position and stuff like that," said Tredaway, who is now 6-for-10 with 3 RBIs and four runs scored at the College World Series. "A lot of us -- I know I do, choke up a little bit, just try to keep it short. And at that point that at-bat's for your team with two strikes."
Which was plenty of run support for Horton who, yet again, shoved on his biggest stage yet allowing just two runs on five hits and one walk over six innings. The 11 strikeouts the most by a Sooner pitcher in Omaha since Mark Redman (1994).
"The slider, I developed it Tuesday prior to the Big 12 Championship game. And Ben Abram is the one who really helped me develop. He gave me the confidence to throw it in a game. And it's been working ever since," said Horton.
You could say it's developed quite nicely. To the tune of 36 strikeouts in the 23.2 innings since.
Now Oklahoma will have a few days to rest before the winner's bracket final on Wednesday. The beat goes on. The band keeps playing. It's starting to feel special.
But that's no surprise to players in the Oklahoma dugout. They've believed since the start.
"Winning the national championship's always been kind of the goal. And we've had that in mind from the very beginning and it's not just a new idea," said third baseman Wallace Clark.
"Even after, like, a loss and a mid-week game, in the front half of the season we had talks with Skip (Johnson) and Reggie (Willits) and everybody, and the idea behind was it doesn't matter if we lost here, we're still going to go win the whole damn thing."
They'll have a chance to earn that opportunity in a few days time.
Graham makes history
Anytime you're name is included with an all-time great like Barry Bonds you've probably done something right on the diamond.
Peyton Graham did that on Sunday going 4-for-4 with two stolen bags becoming the first player with four hits and two stolen bases in a College World Series game since Bonds in 1984.
