Skip Johnson reveals pitching plan for CWS Final

The Oklahoma Sooners head baseball coach Skip Johnson was short and to the point regarding questions on his pitching rotation for the College World Series Championship. The Sooners will take on one of the surprise teams of this year’s college baseball postseason, the Ole Miss Rebels. What will not be a surprise come game one is who will be on the mound for Oklahoma.

“Jake Bennett,” said Johnson when asked who his game one starter would be. Johnson answered the question so quickly that he unintentionally bypassed the first part of the question, ‘what is the importance of the first game?’

“No, Jake Bennett will throw first and then Horton on Saturday, and then we’ll figure it out on Sunday — or Monday.”

Oklahoma is another surprise team of this year’s College World Series thanks to Johnson’s coaching. The Sooners came on late in the season and got hot at the right time, winning the Big 12 conference tournament before heading into their regional bracket in Gainesville, FL. There Oklahoma would upset the No. 13 team in the nation, the Florida Gators, before beating the No. 4 team Virginia Tech in the Super Regional Round. From there, the Sooners would go on to beat a pair of their heated rivals, the Texas A&M Aggies and Texas Longhorns, in their College World Series bracket. Next up for them is their last and final quest, defeating another red hot team in Ole Miss.

The Sooners with Bennett on the mound this year

The Sooners have been excellent in Bennett’s last seven games allowing the redshirt sophomore pitcher to enjoy a seven-game winning streak, which also includes a save he picked up in the regional closeout game against the Florida Gators. On the season, Bennett sports a relatively decent ERA of 3.66. However, the young pitcher has struggled at times throughout the season. And when he has done so, it has not fared well for the Sooners. Three times this season, Bennett has had an ERA north of 10.0. Despite his struggles in all three games, Oklahoma’s big bats kept them afloat, winning one of the games and losing the other two by a combined score of five runs.

The Sooners will likely rely heavily on their power-hitting to capture this College World Series championship. So in their opening game against Ole Miss, they will likely not rely heavily on the arm of their young picture. However, if Bennett does go out and pitches the game of his life, it will go a long way toward the Sooners becoming the first college program to win the men’s and women’s World Series Championships in the same season.