Day two of the College World Series would be all about the Southeastern Conference, as four teams from the conference would meet on the second day of the College World Series for what felt like a Saturday at the Hoover Met as Oklahoma and Alabama would start things off, before the highly anticipated matchup between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Texas Longhorns. 

Both the Sooners and Crimson Tide came into the College World Series on a heater after jumping on the path given to reach the College World Series. Not to mention, Saturday’s game would be the 4th time these two have met this season, with Alabama taking the season series by taking two out of three from the Sooners. 

On the Oklahoma side of it today, the Sooners got through a game seven in the Atlanta Regional with a road win over Georgia Tech to advance to Kansas, where they went into Lawrence and swept the Jayhawks to reach the College World Series. 

For Alabama, the Crimson Tide reached the College World Series with a path straight through Tuscaloosa after sweeping through the Regional, before quickly sweeping St. John’s in the Super Regional as the Crimson Tide rolled to the College World Series. 

On the mound for Alabama on Saturday would be Tyler Fay, while the Sooners went with Cord Rager, setting the scene for an instant potential pitchers’ duel on Saturday. As the game progressed, Cord Rager’s command grew, and he continued to build momentum, dominating the Alabama hitters. Tyler Fay would see his day after six complete innings; he finished with six hits, five runs, two walks, and six strikeouts. Not perfect, but manageable for the Alabama offense to overcome, if and a big if, Cord Rager ever made a mistake. Cord continued his domination of Alabama, giving the Sooners seven complete innings with three hits, zero runs, zero walks, and an impressive eight strikeouts. 

Oklahoma would get to Tyler Fay early with two runs in the first, one in the third, and then extended the lead to 5-0 over Alabama in the top half of the 6th inning with a two-run shot to left field from Deiten LaChance. Oklahoma would blow the game wide open in the top half of the 8th inning with a four-run inning to extend the lead to 9-0 over Alabama. 

Oklahoma came in on a mission and stuck to the game plan. The Sooners got to Fay early, then Cord Rager got into a roll, and the Sooners put on a clinic on Saturday night. Just one of those days for the Sooners, where everything was working, and the pitching followed. A truly insane performance to start the College World Series, the first blowout of the weekend. Now they wait on the winner of Georgia and Texas in the winner-bracket game on Monday night. On the other side, Alabama will face either Texas or Georgia in an elimination game on Monday afternoon. 

Photo Credits: OU baseball on X