Sooners take on talented, battle tested ECU team to kickoff NCAA Tournament
Oklahoma has its work cut out. Friday evening, they’ll take the field to play against the best the American Athletic Conference offers in baseball. The East Carolina Pirates are a dangerous and scrappy team fully capable of winning the Charlottesville Regional and moving on to the Super Regionals.
Oklahoma is just a year removed from a magical run to the NCAA championship series in Omaha. Things are very different this time around for the Sooners. Why, you might ask? Well, for starters, they lost so many players from that team.
Josh Callaway of Sooners Illustrated perfectly captures the sheer magnitude of what losses Oklahoma overcame to make the tournament.
A reminder that Oklahoma lost from last year’s team their:
– Entire starting rotation
– First baseman
– Shortstop
– Catcher
– Center fielder
– Designated Hitter
– Key reliever
– Closer
– Top assistant coach#Sooners returning to the postseason is a big accomplishment— Josh Callaway (@JoshMCallaway) May 29, 2023
On top of those losses, the Sooners had the 16th most difficult schedule in the nation. They are tested and hung in there enough to make the 64-team tournament.
15 of OU’s 31 wins this season came against teams in the NCAA Tournament field. Many detractors will say they don’t belong here, but arguing against their schedule is a difficult one. They enter the tournament winners of 12 of their last 19 games despite their lackluster showing in the Big 12 tournament.
Their opponents on Friday night, the Pirates, should come in locked in after losing a chance at an AAC tournament title and the possibility of hosting a regional when they failed to defeat Tulane. The Green Wave became the worst team ever to make the NCAA tournament after they pulled off a Cinderella run through the conference tournament.
Starting on the mound will be Trey Yesavage, a sophomore righthander who is 6-1 with an ERA of 2.80 and a team-high 98 strikeouts. He is 11th in hte nation in WHIP (0.99) and 17th in strikeouts per nine innings (12.48).
Yesavage is tracking to be a top 50 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, so getting to him won’t be easy.
Offensively, the Pirates were second in the AAC with a team batting average of .292. Outfielder Carter Cunningham leads the way, batting .324. He has hit eight home runs and has 35 RBIs. Five other ECU players are batting over .300. Josh Moylan is the chief run producer with 19 doubles, two triples, 15 home runs, and a team-high 66 RBI.
Oklahoma and ECU have never met on the diamond. That changes on Friday night. The game will be shown at 6 p.m. CT on Friday at Davenport Field at Disharoon Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2/ESPN+.
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