College World Series, Gamecocks – Oklahoma Preview

The South Carolina Gamecocks play the Oklahoma Sooners tomorrow at 2 pm in the College World Series in Omaha. Here’s a look at the Gamecocks’ first round matchup.

Oklahoma’s starting pitcher will be junior RHP Michael Rocha. Rocha was a reliever for most of year until moving into a starting role late in the season. He has a 7-2 record and a 3.57 ERA. He has struck out 53 and walked 19 in 68 innings. That equates to a little less than one strike out per inning and a walk every 10 batters or so.

If Rocha can’t go the distance there are three likely relievers the Gamecocks could see. Senior RHP Jeremy Erben leads the Sooners in appearances with 31. He is a strikeout pitcher who has fanned 75 in 69 innings. He has walked 26, and opposing batters are batting .253 against him. Junior LHP Anthony Collazo is another possibility. In 24 appearances he has pitched 20 2/3 innings striking out 27 and walking 9. The last probable reliever is the team leader in saves, Junior RHP Ryan Duke. Duke’s strike out to walk ratio is 37 to 13 in 34 innings.

South Carolina will send senior Blake Cooper to the mound. He will face a Sooner line up that boasts several good hitters. The best hitter is 3B Garrett Buechele. Buechele has been chosen for some All-American teams because of his .371 average, 16 home runs and 64 RBIs. The rest of the line up is fairly balanced. Other power hitters include 1B Cameron Seitzer (15 HR, 52 RBI), LF Max White (15 HR, 43 RBI) and RF Cody Reine (10 HR, 42 RBI). If the Sooners decide to run (and they don’t run nearly as much as some teams, ahem, Coastal), they will probably send CF Chris Ellison (23 SB, 26 att) or 2B Danny Black (14 SB, 20 att).

Overall the Oklahoma offense looks like South Carolina’s from years past. They have lots of long balls and lots of hitters with multiple RBIs. They don’t have many sac bunts (65 in 65 games), but do have good power. Blake Cooper will have to keep the ball down in the zone to keep the ball in the park, but if he can, you have to like USC’s chances.

The winner of Sunday’s game will play the winner of the other Sunday game between Arizona State and Clemson.

Probable Line-ups

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