Cade Horton on losing national title: We'll be back

Oklahoma’s run for a national title ended yesterday with a 4-2 loss to Ole Miss in the College World Series. With a 45-24 record, the Sooners put themselves in position to win it all with a 3-0 start in Omaha. It wasn’t enough, though, as the Rebels swept them by a combined score of 14-5 in the finals. A season like this can be a spring board for a program to continue to compete at that level. Redshirt freshman Cade Horton says that’s exactly the case for Oklahoma moving forward.

After the loss, Horton was asked to put the season in perspective. While they came up short of their ultimate goal, they laid the groundwork for the future of the Sooner program.

“Yeah, obviously that was our goal coming into it. We made it here, and we accomplished a lot this year,” said Horton. “But we’ll be back. I know that because this team laid the foundation for the future of Oklahoma baseball.”

Horton put his team in position to win through 7.1 innings in the closeout game. He threw 79 strikes for a total of 13 strikeouts. He gave up one home run to Ole Miss’ Jacob Gonzalez, but Oklahoma had a 2-1 lead by the time he was done for the day. Horton says all he was doing was taking his day pitch by pitch in order to give them a chance.

“Yeah, I just stuck to what I’ve been doing the last few starts, and that was just taking it one pitch at a time. I just wanted to put my team in a position to win and get ahead and throw strikes.”

Once Horton left the game, things fell apart for the Sooners. Ole Miss scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth from a single and a pair or errant pitches given up by Trevin Michael. That gave the Rebels all they needed to close it out in the top of the ninth.

The loss ended their season, but Horton believes it’s just the start for them in Norman. Horton will be back next season to help lead next year’s team. From there, their only goal will be to get back to Omaha and finish the job next time.

“You know, it’s been wild. It’s been fun. Hopefully next year I can get back — we can get back here. That’s the plan.”