OMAHA, Neb. — Sunny Golloway was plumb tuckered out Sunday night, and he wasn’t even one of the guys playing.
After two rain delays totaling more than six hours Sunday, the Oklahoma coach watched Jeremy Erben and Ryan Duke worked out of bases-loaded situations in the eighth and ninth innings to hold off South Carolina 4-3 in the College World Series.
“That was not an easy day,” Golloway said. “I kept looking at my watch during the delay and thinking we left the hotel at 10 o’clock, and we were at the 10-hour mark at one point. It’s a good thing the student-athletes were performing. I don’t know that my body would have allowed it after that long of a delay.”
Caleb Bushyhead homered and drove in the go-ahead run, and Garrett Buechele homered to left in the eighth to give the Sooners a two-run cushion that allowed Duke to survive a bases-loaded walk to Gamecocks’ slugger Jackie Bradley in the ninth.
When Duke got Adrian Morales to fly out to end the game, he had his 12th save of the season and school record-tying 28th of his career.
South Carolina coach Ray Tanner said both teams handled the challenge of the stop-and-start game.
“It’s just part of baseball. You have rain delays, and that was a tough one,” Tanner said. “But it was the same for both teams. And we came out fighting to the end.”
The Clemson-Arizona State game was postponed until this morning. Oklahoma (50-16) plays the Clemson-Arizona State winner on Tuesday night, with South Carolina (48-16) meeting the loser of that game Tuesday afternoon.
The start of Sunday’s game was delayed 4 hours, 15 minutes, and play was halted for an additional 2:01 by rain and lightning in the middle of the sixth inning.
“Our team is so mentally tough, and we knew we would continue the game no matter what,” Buechele said. “We went into the locker room, goofed around, told stories and didn’t get too bogged down about how it’s raining our first day here in Omaha.”
Bushyhead homered to break a 1-1 tie in the second, and he singled into the right-field corner to make it 3-2 in the fourth before Buechele slugged his team-leading 17th homer to deep left off submarine-style reliever Jose Mata.
South Carolina was within a run in the ninth after Duke walked Bradley on four pitches with the bases loaded. Considering Bradley, batting .371, had homered earlier in the game and is on a 17-game hitting streak, the walk wasn’t such a bad thing.
“It wasn’t a deal where we wanted to say we’re going to pitch around him,” Golloway said, “but I wasn’t disappointed to give him a base on balls.”
Sooners starter Michael Rocha (8-2) went six innings and gave up solo homers to Christian Walker and Bradley. Erben came on after the second rain delay.
South Carolina starter Blake Cooper (12-2), eight days after his pitching hand was hit as he shielded himself from a foul ball, was sharp for five innings but left with his team behind 3-2 when the second rain delay came. Cooper allowed three runs on six hits and a walk, and he struck out five.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
