Sooner freshman Cord Rager strutted off the mound after pumping a fastball by the Alabama batter. On the biggest stage in college baseball, the pride of Maypearl, Texas, twirled a gem.
Rager completed seven innings for the first time in his career in OU’s 9-0 win over Alabama on Saturday afternoon in the opening round of the College World Series at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska..
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Rager showed up to OU as a powerful, left-handed bat, but now it’s his left arm that’s powering the Cinderella Sooners.
The 6-foot-6 lefty made 12 starts in the regular season. Not once did he pitch past the fifth inning. But Rager has gone at least six innings in each of his three postseason starts, including his seven-inning masterpiece Saturday.
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Rager allowed three hits and no walks while tying his career high with eight strikeouts. He needed only 88 pitches.
“It’s like any other game,” Rager told himself.
“And everything else just kind of fades away,” he said to reporters. “I had tunnel focus.”
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Rager has allowed three earned runs in 19 postseason innings. All three of those runs came against The Citadel in the regional round. In his two starts since — against Kansas in the super regionals and Alabama in the College World Series — Rager has thrown 13 scoreless innings.
Seven of Rager’s eight strikeouts came on his breaking ball. His eighth and final strikeout was on a 94 mile-an-hour heater.
Rager’s battery mate, catcher Deiten Lachance, rolled his left ankle on the basepaths in the top of the first inning. Lachance stayed in the game, setting up his Kirk Gibson moment. In the sixth inning, Lachance pulled a 409-foot homer to left field, leading to the slowest home-run trot in world series history (unofficially).
“There’s no timer,” Lachance told reporters.
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And while he said his ankle is “fine” and “100%,” his actions disagreed.
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Hobbled or not, Lachance isn’t going to sideline himself. Not when he can hit bombs, bum ankle and all.
“If you give me something to hit, I’m going to hit it out or at least hit it hard,” he said.
OU didn’t look like a world series team until it wrecked Georgia Tech in the Atlanta Regional. Then it rolled over Kansas in the Lawrence Super Regional. Now, after one win in Omaha, OU looks the part of a title team.
The OU bats are glowing crimson. The Sooners are averaging 10 runs per game in the postseason. They plated a measly nine against Alabama. The first eight batters in the order had a hit Saturday. OU had 11 hits, nine of which came with runners on base. Lachance had the only homer. Lachance, Jaxon Willits and Dasan Harris all had two-hit games.
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LJ Mercurius relieved Rager, throwing two innings to complete the shutout.
OU, in the All-SEC side of the bracket, will face the winner of Georgia and Texas at 6 p.m. Monday on ESPN.
With an emergent ace in Rager backed by a sizzling offense, the Sooners could have an extended stay in Omaha.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Cord Rager brings ‘tunnel focus’ to CWS as OU baseball keeps rolling
