Oklahoma Just Shut Out Alabama 9-0 in Omaha. The Sooners Are the Team to Beat.
Oklahoma did not just beat Alabama on Friday night. The Sooners flattened them.
The 9-0 shutout in Omaha was the first opening MCWS win by that margin since Georgia Tech blanked South Carolina 11-0 in 2002. That is the kind of statistic that gets read out at trophy ceremonies. Oklahoma is now the favorite to leave Charles Schwab Field with a national title.
The story was a freshman. Cord Rager went seven scoreless innings, allowed three hits, struck out eight, walked nobody, and threw 63 of his 87 pitches for strikes. That is a major league level outing from a 19 year old playing in front of more than 25,000 fans in the biggest stadium college baseball offers. The Sooners coaching staff knew Rager was special. The rest of the country found out Friday.
Alabama is a real team. They were not the bracket pushover. The Crimson Tide swept their way through their super regional and entered the MCWS as one of the hottest offenses in college baseball. None of it mattered. Rager attacked the strike zone with a low to mid 90s fastball and a slider that absolutely buckled the Tide’s middle of the order. Alabama had two baserunners cross second base all night.
The Oklahoma offense did what good offenses do when they have a lead. They added on. The Sooners scored in five different innings. They went 7 for 14 with runners in scoring position. They executed in every part of the game.
This MCWS is loaded. North Carolina is the odds favorite at most sportsbooks. UNC has made it to Omaha 13 times in program history, 11 in this century, and never won the title. The Tar Heels are carrying the longest active streak of any program when it comes to making it without closing the deal. The pressure is on Scott Forbes.
West Virginia is the Cinderella story. The Mountaineers won a wild Friday night opener against Troy when Tyrus Hall hit a two run single in the bottom of the eighth. WVU has the kind of underdog energy that builds across an Omaha run. They are also a real baseball team with real arms, not a fluke.
The other half of the bracket has Texas, Georgia, Ole Miss, and Oregon waiting. Five SEC teams in the field. Two first time MCWS programs. One ACC squad. The conference power dynamics are visible in every matchup.
But Oklahoma is the team that has the look. The pitching depth is the deepest in the field. Rager is the headliner, but there are three other arms in the rotation who could anchor any other team in Omaha. The lineup is balanced. Skip Johnson has coached this group through the regional and super regional with a quiet confidence that does not show up in soundbites but absolutely shows up in execution.
The Sooners last won the MCWS in 1994. That was 32 years ago. The program has been close several times since. The current roster has a real chance to bring the trophy back to Norman.
Next up is the winner of the Texas vs Georgia matchup. An all SEC second round game would have been a story two years ago. Now it is just another Omaha night. The conference realignment has changed everything about what college baseball looks like, and Omaha is the new stage for the same rivalries that dominate football and basketball.
If Oklahoma keeps pitching like this, the bracket does not really matter. The Sooners look like they want to send a message. They are off to a great start.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
