ATLANTA, Ga. -- Third-seeded The Citadel (35-25) came up short against No. 2 Oklahoma (33-21) in the weather-delayed opening round of the NCAA Baseball Championship at the Atlanta Regional, falling to the Sooners via an 8-3 final mark early Saturday afternoon at Russ Chandler Stadium. With the loss, the Bulldogs quickly turnaround for an elimination clash against fourth-seeded UIC with first pitch slated for 2 p.m. on Saturday.
"I thought it was a really good college baseball game, and it started out the way we hoped," head coach
Russell Triplett said. "I thought we got a quality start from Andrew [Buffkin)]. I thought we did what we had to do to get an early run. I thought that was big for us to get off to a good start. I thought we played good defense and our pitching kept us in the game. We faced two elite arms and we battled all game. We just couldn't score after the first few innings and that was the difference in the game."
Offensively,
Michael Gibson paced The Citadel behind a 3-for-3 showing at the plate, coming up just a triple short of hitting the cycle as the senior notched an early double, homered in the fourth and singled a frame later in the fifth.
Aryan Patel posted a pair of hits while four additional Bulldogs collected a knock as well.
Sam Dansky,
Zach Hunt and Gibson with the solo shot garnered the lone RBIs for the squad.
Notably, the Gibson bomb elevated the senior to six on the year, pushing the two-war star into a tie with Utah Tech's Ryan Kroepel as the only two players in the NCAA with 10 saves and six home runs on the year.
On the mound,
Andrew Buffkin suffered the loss following a 6.2-inning performance, surrendering seven runs -- all earned -- on 14 hits while striking out four.
Ben Brash faced two batters in the seventh before
CJ Van Slooten closed out the final 1.1 frames, giving up just one run on a single hit.
For Oklahoma, Dasan Harris led the team with three hits and an RBI while five Sooners logged a pair of knocks on the day, driving in four runs as a unit. Trey Gambill tallied a two-run homer as well in the lead-changing fourth, good for his only hit on the day. On the bump, Cord Rager picked up the win off 6.0 innings of action, containing the Bulldogs with three runs allowed on seven hits while setting down eight batters on strikes. LJ Mercurius earned the save as he cleaned up the final 3.0 frames, surrendering two hits with one walk while striking out four.
With the win, Oklahoma will challenge regional host and No. 2 national seed Georgia Tech in the final game Saturday, currently set for 6 p.m. The loser will match up in the early Sunday contest against the winner between No. 3 The Citadel and No. 4 UIC with first pitch slated for 1 p.m.
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