Oklahoma star Trevin Michael recalls pregame speech from NFL star Kyler Murray

Ahead of Oklahoma‘s College World Series berth, former Sooners quarterback and baseball standout Kyler Murray addressed the team in the hopes of giving them a but more motivation with the biggest games of their college careers. Following OU’s 13-8 victory over Texas A&M in Game 1 – Murray’s words certainly resonated.

Current Sooners star pitcher Trevin Michael, who pitched 2.2 innings with three strikeouts and allowed just one hit against Texas A&M, revealed a tidbit of that pregame speech following Oklahoma’s big CWS victory.

“Kyler told us this is every kid’s dream, and don’t play tight just because you’re in it,” Michael said. “I think we did a really good job of it. I don’t know if it was his doing of us doing that, but it definitely didn’t hurt, an athlete of that caliber talking to us, and for him understanding the moment.”

Two true freshman took those words to heart and came up with massive plays could be pointed toward as pivotal moments for the Sooners that set the tone for the rest of the game.

“The best part of that was you have John Spikerman, a true freshman, goes in there, his first at-bat of the game, gets bases-loaded walk,” Michael said. “And Jackson Nicklaus, a true freshman, going out and did the same thing.

“Those are two freshman that are on the biggest stage in the world for college baseball and they go in and have poised bats. I think Kyler Murray that’s what he was getting at when he was talking to us, just things like that.”

The Sooners jumped out to an 8-0 lead early in the game, never looking back. Aggies starter Nathan Dettmer was on the mound for seven of the eight Oklahoma runs in the first two innings. Texas A&M would eventual earn some of those runs back thanks to a three-run bomb from Jordan Thompson, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the initial onslaught put on by the Sooners bats.

Now, Oklahoma has to overcome the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who just came off a victory over Texas in their first CWS game as well. The first pitch between the Sooners and Irish is set for 7 p.m. ET Sunday night live on ESPN2, while the Aggies and Longhorns (facing elimination) duke it out 2 p.m. ET Sunday as well on ESPN.