Oklahoma Sooners

The rain delay couldn’t wake up the Oklahoma bats as South Carolina cruised to a 5-1 win Monday to eliminate the Sooners and advance to the College World Series:

How the game was won: The Gamecocks executed out of the rain delay. The Sooners did not. OU first baseman Evan Mistich made an errant throw to third on a sacrifice bunt, allowing the Gamecocks to score their first run in the top of the seventh inning. South Carolina added another run on a wild pitch. In the bottom of the inning, meanwhile, OU’s Jack Mayfield was thrown out at third on a missed hit-and-run. After walking the first two batters, South Carolina was able to limit the damage to one run.

Play of the game: With OU trying to keep the deficit at one run in the eighth, South Carolina’s Tanner English laid down a gorgeous bunt between the pitcher and first baseman with two outs. Mayfield couldn’t make a play to first, and Adam Matthews scored from third to put the Gamecocks 3-1. OU was clearly deflated by the bunt, and gave up two more runs in the inning.

Player of the game: Jonathan Gray pitched six brilliant innings Sunday before the rain delay. Gray struck out nine batters and allowed only three hits. Who knows what would have happened had the game not been delayed a day and Gray had been able to continue pitching?

Stat of the game: The Gamecocks have now won 21 straight NCAA tournament games dating back to 2010.
What it means: Considering their postseason hopes were on the brink with two weeks left in the regular season, the Sooners made quite the run. South Carolina is making a run of historic proportions and will be one of the favorites again in Omaha.

SoonerNation's Bob Przybylo talks with Jenks, Okla. cornerback Steven Parker, who was recently offered by Oklahoma.

Every Monday during the summer, the SoonerNation staff answers a roundtable question. Leave a comment or talk about it in our "There's Only One" forum.

Today's question: Who will be the Sooners' most improved redshirt freshman or sophomore?

In just a couple of plays during the Red-White spring game, defensive tackle Jordan Phillips showed what he's capable of. Phillips has already wowed teammates and coaches with freaky athleticism for a player of his size. Next season as a redshirt freshman, Phillips will begin wowing the rest of us. The Sooners need a difference-maker to emerge up front. Assuming he works his way into the tackle rotation, Phillips just might be that guy.

- Jake Trotter

Tackle Daryl Williams will make the biggest jump from his redshirt freshman to sophomore season. He was slated to start at right tackle for the Sooners as a redshirt freshman but an ankle injury in the season opener against Tulsa hampered him throughout the 2011 season. Expect Williams to progress from potential starter to a cornerstone of the Sooners offensive line this season after locking down the starting right tackle position during spring football.

- Brandon Chatmon

Ask me in February, and my clear answer was wide receiver Kameel Jackson. I do think Jackson is going to work himself back into the good graces, but it won't be easy. I'm staying on offense and saying fullback Aaron Ripkowski is going to make some noise in 2012. Because of the versatility of Trey Millard, I expect Ripkowski to get more chances at the traditional role of fullback. He turned heads as a freshman and has the perfect fullback name in Ripkowski.

- Bob Przybylo

While Lane Johnson was solid but not spectacular at right tackle for the Sooners in 2011, Daryl Williams was a non-factor.. Expect Williams' role to change significantly this season as he has already locked down the starting job coming out of spring. Williams has the potential to be an all-conference lineman, barring any injuries which was his downfall last season. Williams will likely be the youngest member of OU's line, but he's also one of its most talented.

- Dane Beavers

Last month, the Big 12 Conference and SEC announced plans for a bowl game between the champions of each conference.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops likes the idea.

“I think it’s awesome, it’s great,” Stoops said. “Anytime you pit great teams against each other everyone wants to watch it.”

Beginning in 2014, the conference champions will only play each other if they aren’t among the top four teams in the nation, who are expected to participate in a college football playoff. If either conference champion is among the top four, the next best team will take their place.

The Big 12 and SEC have each had a team among the top four teams for the 11 of the past 14 seasons since the BCS was created in 1998.

The name and site of the Big 12-SEC bowl game have not been announced.

With Carl Blair's decision to leave the program, Oklahoma is left without a returning backup for starting point guard Sam Grooms.

Spring signee Isaiah Cousins (Mount Vernon, N.Y./Mount Vernon) could fit the bill. At 6-foot-4, Cousins could bring excellent size to the position behind Grooms, who is listed at 6-foot-1.

“He’s very good off the dribble, very good at creating for others, he has good size at the point guard spot,” OU coach Lon Kruger said recently. “Sam is the only point guard we have returning so it’s good he can step in and play there.”

Cousins picked OU over offers from Virginia Tech, Xavier, Dayton and Rhode Island. He brings the versatility to play point guard and shooting guard. The Sooners already have Steven Pledger returning at shooting guard along with incoming freshmen Buddy Hield and Je’lon Hornbeak at that position, making point guard a perfect fit for Cousins.

Carl Blair, Grooms’ backup last season, elected to leave the program after his junior season and is likely headed to Prairie View A&M.

Two-sport standouts?

Incoming freshman football players Gary Simon and Charles Tapper didn’t leave their excellence on the football field during their prep careers. Both Oklahoma signees were standouts on the basketball court after spending the fall on the gridiron.

Tapper starred as a power forward for Baltimore City College High School and spent a portion of his career playing AAU basketball alongside Aquille Carr on the Baltimore Elite AAU team.

Simon was named player of the year while averaging 18.4 points per game for St. Petersburg (Fla.) Gibbs as a senior. He’s said he would like to play basketball at OU.

Sooners basketball coach Lon Kruger would welcome the duo with open arms but is uncertain if either player will join his squad this season.

“[We’re] not sure,” Kruger said when asked if they would join his squad after football. “We heard a couple of them had interest in coming out and if that works out, great. We love people that play more than one sport.”

Greener pastures?

More than 400 players have elected to transfer since the end of the college basketball season in early April.

Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger isn’t too surprised by all of the transfers nationwide.

“I think it’s a statement on society in general,” Kruger said. “If you look at young people, they’re changing summer AAU teams all the time. It used to be that freshmen go in, and it’s going to be a matter of time, they pay their dues.

“Kids don’t think like that today. They go in right now and if they aren’t playing the role they want to, they’ll go somewhere else to play that role. Often times I think it’s a reflection of young people not making a decision on a college for all the right reasons.”

Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops would hate to see the college football bowl system become a thing of the past, even with a playoff on the horizon.

“No matter what anyone wants to do or say, the bowl system matters in college football,” Stoops said. “The regular season matters.”

Stoops would like to see the regular bowl system continue with an additional game after the BCS bowl games are completed. His hopes to continue with the bowl system is rooted in his desire to have the best experience for his players.

“For people that don’t understand, we get some kids who have never been out of the state of Oklahoma or from Dallas to Oklahoma,” he said. “They haven’t had this advantaged background. We get to take them to Miami, take them to Phoenix, wherever it may be for a five or six day window.”

For Stoops those bowl trips can be invaluable for his players.

“You’re broadening their horizons, teaching them and giving them opportunities to grow and look at what’s out here in the world,” he said. “That needs to be a part of what we do, and that can’t go away. If there’s another game after that, great.”

On College Football Live, Jake Trotter talks about the issues surrounding Jaz Reynolds, Trey Franks and Quentin Hayes.

SoonerNation's Bob Przybylo talks with Broken Arrow, Okla. running back Devon Thomas about his plans to participate in various camps this summer.

The last time South Carolina lost a postseason baseball game?

Go back to the opener of the 2010 College World Series, when Oklahoma prevailed over South Carolina 4-3. The Gamecocks bounced back to eliminate OU in extra innings, and haven’t looked back. South Carolina went on to win back-to-back national championships, and last weekend ran its unprecedented NCAA tournament-winning streak to 19 games by sweeping the Columbia Regional.

At 7 p.m. Saturday, OU will get another crack at the Gamecocks in Game 1 of the Super Regional, which will be televised on ESPNU. Game 2 is set for 7 p.m. on Sunday on ESPNU, and the if-necessary game is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday and would be televised by ESPN2.

“I think that streak is outstanding,” said OU coach Sunny Golloway. “It’s long and I think that we need to have something to say about it.”

The winner of the USC-Oklahoma super regional will earn a trip to Omaha for the College World Series, which get started June 15, and will face the winner of the Florida-N.C. State super regional.

First, OU will have to get past arguably the most dominant program of the last decade. The good news, however, is that the Sooners are red-hot after going through the loser’s bracket to capture the Charlottesville Regional. After dropping the opener to Appalachian State after a rain delay, OU came back to beat Army, host Virginia and Appalachian State twice.

To end the conference season, the Sooners also swept national seed Baylor and advanced to the Big 12 tournament championship game before losing by a run to Missouri.

“Oklahoma has been hot down the stretch,” South Carolina associate head coach Chad Holbrook told a local radio station this week. “They’ve always pitched extremely well. I don’t think they swing the ball from an offensive-numbers standpoint like Appalachian State, but that doesn’t mean they can’t hit. They have some guys that we played against in Omaha a couple of years ago still on the team. They’re going to have some experience.”

One of those guys is outfielder Cody Reine, who propelled the Sooners to Omaha in 2010 with four home runs in the super regional series victory at Virginia. He had six RBIs last weekend in the first win over Appalachian State. Reine, Max White and the still-surging Matt Oberste give OU some pop in the middle of the lineup. But if the Sooners are going to be the ones that finally take down South Carolina, it will be because of what they are capable of on the mound. Starters Jordan John (8-7, 2.29 ERA), Dillon Overton (6-3, 3.16 ERA) and Jonathan Gray (8-4, 3.32 ERA) were all stellar in Charlottesville, and left-handed closer Steven Okert (drafted in the fourth round by the Giants last week) has been virtually unhittable the last month of the season.

“Like coach says, somebody has to beat us twice in a weekend,” John said before the postseason. “With our pitching staff and how we’re going, I feel like that gives us a great chance.”