RT to celebrate @ou_baseball's Regional Championship and wish them good luck against LSU! twitter.com/SoonerSportsco…
— Oklahoma Sooners (@SoonerSportscom) June 3, 2013
Oh how the Sooners love playing in the state of Virginia. They used some outstanding defensive plays, timely hitting and clutch pitching on Sunday to down the host school Virginia Tech to win the Blacksburg Regional.
The Hokies got to Sooner starter Jake Fisher in the second inning when Ryan Burns hit a two-out single to score Chad Morgan. Then, in the fourth, Andrew Rash went yard to right field. With a 2-0 lead it appeared as if Virginia Tech was taking control mid-way through the game.
Oklahoma went to work in the sixth inning when they plated four runs to take control of the game. Fighting to keep their season alive, Virginia Tech threatened to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth but two outstanding defensive plays kept OU in front.
With Mark Zagunis on third base, Rash hit a blooper to towards third base. Zagunis went towards home but was thrown down by Garrett Carey who made the play by bare handing the ball on a hop and throwing to catcher Anthony Hermelyn, all in a single motion. The sixth inning came to a close when Chad Morgan singled to left field and Max White gunned down Rash at home plate with a throw from the outfield. The two plays kept the Hokies from ultimately taking the lead, holding them to just one run in the inning, and allowed the Sooners to move on with a 4-3 lead.
The score remained that way heading into the ninth and Oklahoma was hoping to add an insurance run. The ended up adding a whole lot more than that as they would plate a total of six runs to put the game out of reach.
With a final winning score of 10-4, the Sooners will advance to a super regional for the third time in four years. All three times they've gone through a regional in Virginia. Up next for Oklahoma will be Super Regional opponent LSU in Baton Rouge with the winner moving on to the World Series.