Oklahoma holds off USC
COLUMBIA – The University of South Carolina baseball team dropped its Southeastern Conference opener, 8-5, to No. 12 Oklahoma Friday night (March 14) at Ray Tanner Field at Founders Park.
Oklahoma scored four runs on four hits in the first inning. Brandon Stone settled down after that to give the Gamecocks five innings. He allowed seven hits and five runs with three strikeouts and two walks.
Carolina plated the first run in the fifth on Jordan Carrion's triple followed by Henry Kaczmar's RBI groundout. After Oklahoma scored a pair in the top of the sixth, Carolina came back with four in the bottom of the frame. Talmadge LeCroy drove in the first run with a single. Carrion's groundout plated KJ Scobey and infield singles from Kaczmar and Nathan Hall brought in runs.
Oklahoma tacked on a run in the eighth on a solo home run for the final 8-5 total.
Scobey had three hits on the night while LeCroy, Kaczmar, Hall and Ethan Petry had two hits apiece. Matthew Becker struck out a pair in 1.2 innings of relief while Jackson Soucie and Parker Marlatt had three and two strikeouts apiece. Kyson Witherspoon earned the win for the Sooners, striking out seven in 5.1 innings, allowing six hits and three runs.
POSTGAME NOTES
Hall now leads the team with nine multi-hit game.
Hall has a nine-game hitting streak and a 12-game reached base streak.
Carrion is hitting .421 in the team's last five games.
Oklahoma had three solo home runs on the night.
UP NEXTCarolina and Oklahoma resume the three-game set on Saturday, March 15 with a 4 p.m.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
4 hours ago
- USA Today
Josh Pate isn't sleeping on Oklahoma's John Mateer
Josh Pate isn't sleeping on Oklahoma's John Mateer The Oklahoma Sooners made a major upgrade at starting quarterback this winter. With former starter Jackson Arnold off to play for the Auburn Tigers, OU had a hole to fill under center. Not only did they fill it, they did so with a player, John Mateer, who is better than any QB the Sooners had on the roster a year ago. In fact, Mateer was the transfer portal's top overall player this year. Oklahoma beat out Miami and North Carolina to land the former Washington State star. After OU was atrocious offensively in 2024, Mateer's arrival gives the Sooners a chance to rebound back to their winning ways in 2025. At least that's what Josh Pate, the host of "Josh Pate's College Football Show", thinks. Because of familiarity with his play-caller and the help of players from multiple top-ten recruiting classes over the past few years, he has Mateer right alongside the best quarterbacks in the entire SEC. "I'm putting John Mateer in the top five," Pate said. "If I'm right, Oklahoma's gonna be a contender in the SEC. I believe in the OC-quarterback approach, bringing both of them in, not just one of them, especially when they're both qualified, and Ben Arbuckle and John Mateer are. I also think it greatly helps that John Mateer is not being brought into Norman, Oklahoma, and then being looked at by everyone down on their knees with their hands clasped praying, 'Please save us John, save us.' No, you don't need to save anyone. You need to go in there and play solid football and execute, make good decisions, because you know what you've got around you? You've got a top-ten roster around you. You've got a really good defense. You don't have to score 42 a game to win, and you've got guys calling plays for you that you're very familiar with. I think he's gonna be really good this year. That's why I've got Oklahoma top ten in the preseason." Sooner Nation has long clamored for complementary football in Norman. For years, OU fans had to watch incredible offenses, led by Heisman Trophy-level quarterbacks, be ultimately let down by bad defenses. The trio of Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts combined for four College Football Playoff appearances in five seasons from 2015 to 2019, and it was the inability to get stops on defense that, for the most part, sunk those excellent Oklahoma teams in the semifinal round each time. When Brent Venables took over for Lincoln Riley, the hope was that he could change that. In the years since, Venables has built up a defense that looks like it can compete in the SEC. But, just as the defense was getting really good in 2024, Oklahoma's offense fell off a cliff with Seth Littrell and Jackson Arnold at the helm. Complementary football eluded OU yet again. With plenty of returning starters, the Oklahoma defense looks like it has the pieces to be good again. On the other side of the ball, the Arbuckle-Mateer combination hopes to finally bring high-level play on both offense and defense, at the same time, to Norman in 2025. Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @Aaron_Gelvin.
USA Today
4 hours ago
- USA Today
Five takeaways from LSU baseball's super regional win vs. West Virginia
Five takeaways from LSU baseball's super regional win vs. West Virginia LSU baseball is headed to Omaha. After sweeping West Virginia in the Baton Rouge Super Regional, LSU punched a ticket to the College World Series. The Tigers erupted for 16 runs in Game 1 before plating 12 more in Game 2. It was just what we wanted to see from the LSU offense after the Tigers' bats were inconsistent at points this spring. Kade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson didn't pitch at the elite level they did in the regional, but both were good enough to get the wins. Anderson allowed six earned runs, but made it through seven innings in Game 1. Eyanson held WVU to three runs and struck out seven of the course of five innings in Game 2. Tigers' head coach Jay Johnson has now led LSU to Omaha in two of his four years in Baton Rouge. LSU's last CWS trip came in 2023, when the Tigers won it all with Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews. Before LSU continues its quest for another national title, here are five takeaways from LSU's Super Regional win. 1. LSU responded in the seventh inning LSU controlled the game early, scoring six runs in the first two innings. WVU began to stage a comeback. The Mountaineers scored three runs in the fourth and plated another in the fifth. Then, LSU had a response of its own. LSU scored six runs in the seventh inning, putting the game out of reach. It started with a two-run single off the bat of Chris Stanfield. Not long after, Derek Curiel scored on a throwing error. Steven Milam kept the rally going with an RBI double. Jake Brown capped it off with a two-run shot to center field. West Virginia had the momentum entering the seventh, and the Mountaineers were a couple of swings away from tying it up. Good teams respond like LSU did in the seventh. 2. Anderson and Eyanson were good enough Good pitchers find a way to do enough even when they don't have their best stuff. Neither Kade Anderson nor Anthony Eyanson had their best, but they combined to pitch 12 innings and both got the win. Anderson held WVU to one run through five innings, which allowed LSU to build a substantial lead. West Virginia put up some runs in the later innings, but Anderson hung in there and threw 109 pitches, keeping LSU's bullpen rested. On Sunday, Eyanson held WVU to three runs in five innings. Between the regional and the super regional, Eyanson allowed just three runs over 13.2 innings. LSU can't expect eight shutout innings from Anderson and Eyanson every night, but the Tigers proved they can win a different style of game vs. West Virginia. 3. Steven Milam was a star Steven Milam had ups and downs in the regular season, but he's been a star for LSU in the NCAA Tournament. He stayed hot vs. West Virginia. On Saturday, Milam came to the plate with LSU up 3-1 and the bases loaded. Milam put one in the bleachers to give LSU a 7-1 lead. Milam walked twice and scored two runs. On Sunday, Milam had two more extra-base hits with four RBI. Again, he walked twice and scored twice. If Milam is going to hit like this, it changes the outlook for LSU's lineup. It gives the Tigers another all-around bat in the middle of the lineup. "He will play baseball for a very long time if he takes the caliber of at-bats that he has," Jay Johnson said of Milam last weekend. 4. Potential emergence of Cooper Williams Aside from Casan Evans, LSU's bullpen has struggled in recent weeks. Even Zac Cowan has faltered after being one of the nation's most effective relievers for most of the year. LSU needed another bullpen arm to emerge -- it might just be Cooper Williams. Williams, a true freshman, was ranked as the No. 12 left-handed pitcher in the 2024 class by Perfect Game. He began his career without allowing an earned run in his first 12 appearances, but didn't see a ton of high leverage spots in the regular season. After LSU struggled to get outs last Sunday vs. Little Rock, Williams entered and pitched 3.2 scoreless innings. Then, a week later vs. West Virginia, Johnson called on Williams with the tying run at the plate. Williams delivered and gave LSU 2.2 innings, allowing just one run. That'll play. In 19.2 innings, Williams owns a 1.83 ERA this year. LSU will need a strong effort from the freshman in Omaha. 5. LSU looks like a complete team The Super Regional was LSU at its best. The Tigers have not played two straight complete games like vs. a quality opponent all year. Sure, the Tigers have found ways to win, but LSU was dominant in every phase of the game vs. the Mountaineers. This team is good enough to go all the way in Omaha. We had questions about the lineup entering the weekend. Those were answered. We know guys like Derek Curiel and Daniel Dickinson are going to produce, but when Milam, Brown, and Josh Pearson are showing off the power too, it's hard to find outs vs. this group. And Tiger fans should feel better about the bullpen now, too. LSU finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in the polls for a reason. When this squad plays to its potential, it's the best in the country.
New York Times
4 hours ago
- New York Times
The Thunder are now even with the Pacers. Time for the NBA Finals panic meter!
The Bounce Newsletter | This is The Athletic's daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox. Three significant events happened on this date. In 1980, the Celtics set themselves up for immense success by trading the No. 1 overall pick and Rickey Brown to the Warriors for Robert Parish and the third overall pick. Those picks ended up being a Joe Barry Carroll for Kevin McHale swap. Then, on this date in 1985, a 38-year-old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was unanimously voted the oldest finals MVP ever after beating the Celtics. In 1987, Magic Johnson mimicked Abdul-Jabbar by beating Boston in Game 4 of the Finals with the 'junior, junior sky hook.' Thunder uninterested in a Pacers comeback It's weird how the Pacers have affected the way we watch a playoff game. As the Thunder built their lead, going up by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter of Game 2, it didn't totally feel reasonable to count out the Pacers. They were having a miserable game, including not shooting the 3-ball with the same success as Game 1. The Pacers weren't able to replicate their success against the players around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. And they weren't able to dominate on the boards. Indiana was got swallowed up by everything OKC did on both ends of the floor. Advertisement I'm not sure which moment you decided the lead was safe for the Thunder, but they made sure not to leave any doubt this time. There wouldn't be a furious comeback as the Thunder essentially cruised to a 123-107 victory, but I'm not sure any of this felt like smooth sailing. At the same time, it's the Thunder. They put teams away at a historic pace. Remember, they set the record for most double-digit wins in the NBA this season. If you only went off their double-digit victories, they'd have the third-most wins and still be the No. 1 seed in the West. The Thunder solved a lot of the problems from Game 1: All of this made Gilgeous-Alexander's job easier. He had 34 points on 11-of-21 shooting, and was 11-of-12 from the line. That brings him to 72 points on 25-of-51 shooting through two games, and he's now shot 20 free throws in two games. His point total is the highest by any player in their first two NBA Finals games (the previous record holder? You'll read about him shortly!). SGA also had eight assists. If the Pacers tried to replicate their strategy of eating a bunch of points from the league MVP while shutting everybody else down, they failed. Indiana needs more aggressiveness from Tyrese Haliburton. He was too slow to get going in this game. The Pacers also have to get Pascal Siakam in better position to score. They must generate the same corner looks as they did in Game 1. And you can't have another game in which Obi Toppin has as many shot makes in a game as James Johnson does in 'garbage time.' (That number was one, by the way.) NBA Finals Panic Meter: Indiana clocks in at 🚨🚨 | OKC is at 🚨🚨🚨 Both teams head back to Indianapolis for Game 3 Wednesday. We've got some time to break down where both teams could go from here. Buzzer-beaters are a writer's worst nightmare 🏀 Killing deadlines. What happens when Haliburton or someone else hits a buzzer-beater? Your hard work gets scrapped. 🏀 A dozen. SGA became the 12th NBA player in history to score 3,000 combined points in a season. 🫂 Community. David Aldridge reflects on how shared rebuilds have forged bonds between the Thunder and Oklahoma City. Advertisement 🏀 Steps forward. Rick Carlisle and Haliburton needed to evolve. That's how they made the NBA Finals. 🇨🇦 Friend or foe. When you reach the Finals, friendships don't matter. Just ask SGA and Andrew Nembhard. 🎧 Tuning in. Today's 'NBA Daily' discusses how the league has made a mess of displaying the Larry O'Brien trophy during broadcasts. The story of the greatest players in NBA history. In 100 riveting profiles, top basketball writers justify their selections and uncover the history of the NBA in the process. The story of the greatest players in NBA history. Celebrating Don Nelson as an all-time coach Prior to Game 2 in OKC, the NBA managed to get a famous face back into the NBA spotlight. Hall of Famer Don Nelson was somehow coerced away from Hawaii, where he has lived for a very long time, to come to the mainland to accept an award. It wasn't just any award, though. He was honored with the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Basketball Coaches Association. That's how you get Nelson back into the NBA mix, if only for a night. Nelson hadn't left Maui in seven years, according to Joe Vardon's article. And somehow, Rick Carlisle was able to get him to Oklahoma City to accept this award. That's how much Daly meant to NBA coaches, and that's how much Nelson means to the coaching fraternity. Nelson innovated on both ends of the floor. He was a genius in looking ahead of the game, sometimes decades at a time, and forecast where the league was headed. Nelson is second all-time in coaching wins (1,335). He's tied with Daly for 15th on the all-time wins list when it comes to playoff victories (75). Maybe his most famous playoff victories of all came from leading his Warriors squad over his former Mavericks team in the 2007 playoffs. The reason it was significant is because Golden State was an No. 8 seed, and Dallas was a 67-win No. 1 seed, marking one of the biggest upsets ever. Nelson never won a title as a coach. In fact, he never won a conference title. But he'll always be cemented as one of the best coaches we'll ever see. You can thank him for the point-forward idea. Mavericks fans can also thank him for continuing to fuel the fire between them and the front office/ownership. Nelson remarked at his press conference that trading Luka Dončić was a massive mistake by the front office. Advertisement By now, it wouldn't shock me if Nelson is halfway back to Maui as he regales people of Marques Johnson being the first point-forward. Or maybe he wants to talk about creating Run TMC. Or how he used to implore Steve Nash to shoot more. Or Baron Davis to attack that Russian guy under the basket. Whatever it was, Nelson knew the game of basketball like the back of his hand. He likely still does. Allen Iverson turned 50 over the weekend Whenever we discuss players of yesteryear or players today within historic contexts, we get into time travel. What would this player do back in previous eras? What would a player from long ago look like in today's NBA? We fire up the Delorean, gun it to 88 miles per hour, and then just start arguing about players within a historic vacuum. As a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer turned 50 years old on Saturday, I had a thought about that. I'm so glad Allen Iverson didn't play in today's NBA. It has nothing to do with the style of today's game and it being 3-point heavy. It has nothing to do with whether or not he could fit in with how analytics are affecting basketball. It has everything to do with how basketball is covered, how it is discussed and how social media affects the culture of the game. Even with the existence of Michael Jordan and his billion-dollar shoe enterprise, it wouldn't be hard to argue that Allen Iverson is the biggest icon in basketball history. That doesn't mean greatest player. That doesn't mean richest or most successful. But when we're talking about cultural influence and how he affected the aesthetics of both the game and the players themselves, Iverson changed the course of history as much as anybody. The braids. The tattoos. The shooting sleeve. The way he dressed for the game. And then, on top of it, the swagger he brought to the court, harmoniously married with the array of moves and innovation of how he attacked individual defenders, traps and double teams. Put Iverson in today's dissecting, loud-mouthed landscape, and I'm not sure how much of an influence he would have been allowed to be. Iverson was iconic, not by carefully manicured effort like we see so many PR-driven personalities today. He was iconic because things would be done his way, and he had the spine to speak his mind when he felt he was being unfairly misrepresented. Iverson's persona seemed to exorcise ghosts of the NBA's past from the conversation, and make everybody live in the present. Blink and you missed him. Sure, his signature move had him carrying the ball. Who cares? It was the greatest show on the court. He crossed up everybody. He dotted your eye with jump shots and crossed your t's and ankles with his brazen disregard for convention. He saw Michael Jordan in front of him as a rookie, and just knew he had to see if he could pull off his famed crossover on the greatest player ever. Iverson wouldn't have been appreciated now how he was then. We would have been told the way he plays isn't right. We would have been told his personality is a PR liability waiting to happen. We would have been told how inefficient his game was. Advertisement Instead, watching and experiencing Iverson when we did ensure his legacy and icon status are forever safe. He was a middle finger to tradition, and yet a celebration of all things that make basketball great. Happy 50th to one of the best to ever do it in any era. It truly was a joy to experience Allen Iverson take over an entire culture Streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
