OU Baseball: Malachi Witherspoon, Oklahoma Take Down Nebraska in NCAA Tournament

The Sooners advance to Saturday’s winner’s bracket game against host and top seed (and No. 6 national seed) North Carolina, who opened Friday’s action with a 4-0 victory over 4-seed Holy Cross. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT. Nebraska faces Holy Cross on Friday in an elimination game at 11 a.m. CT.

Friday’s second game was originally scheduled for 4 p.m. CT, but rain throughout the afternoon forced a delay of more than 3 1/2 hours.

Witherspoon, usually the Sunday starter for OU’s weekend series this season, was unfazed by the delay. In fact, he may have been empowered by it. Witherspoon missed his usual start in the rotation in last week’s SEC Tournament, but he was more than ready Friday and — other than a first-inning glitch — was better than ever.

Witherspoon threw six shutout innings thanks to great command and an occasionally overpowering fastball.

During his fourth-inning, in-game interview with the ESPN+ broadcast crew, Johnson said he liked how Witherspoon had commanded his pitches so far.

“His fastball’s sinking good, his breaking ball, he’s throwing it for a strike,” Johnson said. “That’s what he needs to keep doing to keep these guys off balance.”

Witherspoon did just that all night and finished his performance with an emphatic fist-pump after throwing out a batter to end the sixth inning.

Witherspoon’s start wasn’t quite as emphatic as his finish. He loaded the bases on a single, a wild pitch, a hit batter and a walk, but then got three ground ball outs to keep the Huskers off the scoreboard.

While Nebraska’s lineup was handcuffed by Witherspoon, Oklahoma’s bats started flipping the scoreboard early.

In the bottom of the second, catcher Scott Mudler reached on an infield single, but then  injured what Johnson said was his right shoulder while sliding back into first base on a pickoff attempt. Mudler was assisted into the dugout by OU’s medical staff but after another delay was able to return to first base and stayed in the game. 

That brought up right fielder Drew Dickerson, who put Huskers starter Jackson Brockett’s next pitch over the wall in right field for a two-run home run. After giving up the long ball, Brockett seemed demonstrably upset about the delay to tend to Mudler. 

Dickerson, a freshman, was playing in his first game since May 16. He had his first hit since May 11 and his first home run since April 18 (and just his third homer of the season).

Witherspoon stayed out of trouble with a pair of strikeouts in both the second and third innings, including a 98-mph fastball that froze Gabe Swansen to end the third.

Easton Carmichael gave Witherspoon a little more cushion in the third when he hammered a 2-1 slider from Brockett off the scoreboard in left-center field. It was Carmichael’s team-leading 15th long ball of the season and gave the Sooners a 3-0 lead.

OU threatened again in the fourth as Mudler led off with a single. After Mudler took second on a passed ball, Dickerson drew a one-out walk that sent Brockett to the showers. But reliever Casey Daiss got out of the jam when third baseman Rhett Stokes snagged Dawson Willis’ one-hopper over the bag and fired across for the inning-ending double play.

Witherspoon’s seventh strikeout started the fifth inning as he caught Hogan Helligso looking at a 96-mph fastball. 

Witherspoon then got a ground ball from Riley Silva, but shortstop Jaxon Willits couldn’t backhand it. Silva stole second, but then Devin Nunez was called out for a pitch-clock violation — Witherspoon’s eighth K — and Dickerson ended the inning with a dramatic running, spinning, reaching catch on the warning track in right-center field. 

Daiss left after he walked Willits and plunked Carmichael to open the fifth inning. After left-hander Caleb Clark struck out Dayton Tockey, Trey Gambill came through with an RBI single to left that brought Willits home for a 4-0 lead.

Witherspoon avoided more drama in the sixth inning. After he opened with his ninth strikeout, Case Sanderson hustled a double into left center. Witherspoon then hit Dylan Carey with a fastball on the hands to put two runners on. But Max Buettenback’s line drive to center settled right into Jason Walk’s glove, and Witherspoon retired Stokes on a comebacker to end the inning.

Witherspoon finished with 102 total pitches (67 strikes) and scattered just three hits, two walks and two hit batters while striking out nine. He had just posted season-highs in his previous outing, a loss to Texas on May 17: 6 1/3 innings and 107 pitches, with 10 strikeouts (that season high was established in April against Vanderbilt with 11).

Armed with a 4-0 lead, Johnson was happy to turn it over to the OU bullpen — and got the usual mixed results.

Jason Bodin relieved Witherspoon and threw a scoreless seventh, but fell apart in the eighth. 

With OU now up 7-0 to start the eighth, Swansen singled off Willits’ glove at shortstop, Sanderson bounced a tricky hop off Branch’s glove at second, and Bodin hit Carey to load the bases. Buettenback then delivered a bases-clearing triple into the left field corner to cut it to 7-3.

Reid Hensley relieved Bodin and gave up a sacrifice fly from Will Jesske that made it 7-4, but got out of further trouble with a pair of strikeouts.

That Husker rally came after the Sooners had seemed to blow the game open in the bottom of the seventh. 

Tockey drew a one-out walk, Gambill reached on an error and Walk was hit by pitch to load the bases. Mudler’s groundout to second brought home Tockey for a 5-0 OU lead, and Branch made it 7-0 with his two-out, two-run single to right that scored Gambill and Walk.

Those runs turned out to be huge as OU loaded the bases again in the bottom of the eighth with two out but couldn’t score.

In the ninth, closer Dylan Crooks came in and … for his 15th save.