I was wrong...I have no problem admitting it...I was wrong. When the weekend pitching rotation came out I questioned as to whether Oklahoma Coach Sunny Galloway had made the right choice by throwing Dillon Overton against West Virginia and Jonathan Gray against ninth ranked Oregon. Overton has been arguably OU's best starter this season and usually gets to start the Friday games. Gray has struggled the most out of Oklahoma's starters and that's why it just didn't make a lot of sense to me to throw him against the highest ranked opponent the Sooners had faced this season. I was wrong!
Overton captured Oklahoma's first win of the Nike Showcase with a complete game performance against West Virginia on Saturday afternoon. He allowed just two runs off six hits during his nine innings of work and kept the Mountaineers scoreless for the final seven innings of the game.
The two teams were tied 2-2 at the end of the second and remained that way until Oklahoma broke the game open in the bottom of the 8th with three runs scored. Max White went 3-for-4 from the plate in the game and came up with a huge hit that helped spark the rally in the 8th. Oklahoma's 5-2 win improved Overton's season record to 3-0.
On Saturday evening the Sooners played the Oregon Ducks and Jonathan Gray delivered a masterful performance by going seven innings, allowing just two runs scored off eight hits while striking out ten batters without giving up any walks. It was exactly the type of big time performance Oklahoma needed while facing a Top 10 opponent on the road.
OU scored first when Chase Simpson tripled to lead off the third inning and then came into home on a Tanner Toal sacrifice. The Sooners held the 1-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth when the Ducks tied it a 1-1. The tie score would last only momentary though as the Sooners regained the lead in the top of the seventh when Toal singled up the middle to score Cody Reine and put the Sooners ahead for good at 2-1.
Needing one more run to seal the deal Oklahoma struck again in the top of the eighth when Caleb Bushyhead was knocked in by Max White. The insurance run proved necessary because Oregon would score one in the bottom half of the inning to give us the final 3-2 score.
White was also 3-4 against Oregon making him a Big XII Player of the Week candidate with a 6-for-8 Saturday performance from the plate.
Oklahoma plays their final game of the Nike Showcase at 1:00 on Sunday afternoon when they travel to Corvalis to take on Oregon State. The Beavers are the only team in the showcase that has yet to lose a game. First pitch is at 1:00 p.m. (CST).