Extended stay in Hoover, Oklahoma baseball upsets Georgia as Kyson Witherspoon delivers

Someone better let the front desk know. Oklahoma doesn’t have any plans to check out of their rooms anytime soon. There’s more work to be done in Hoover. 

Behind a season-high 7.2 innings and eight strikeouts from its ace Kyson Witherspoon, Oklahoma scored the first true upset of the SEC Baseball Tournament knocking off 5-seed Georgia 3-2 on Wednesday night at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. 

Junior first baseman Brayden Horton, again, delivered in big spots at the plate, tying the game in the fourth inning with a sacrifice fly to center and the eventual game-winning run with a single in the sixth. 

Oklahoma closer Dylan Crooks worked the ninth picking up his 14th save of the year, third most nationally. 

With its second win of the week Oklahoma matched Missouri for all-time wins at the SEC Baseball Tournament. The Tigers have made eight appearances since joining the conference in 2013. I’m being ornery. Back to the Sooners. 

Witherspoon shoves, sends Sooners to quarterfinals 

Skip Johnson has been around a number of tremendous arms throughout his career in baseball. He’s worked with 3x Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw since the Dodger lefty was in high school.

While at the University of Texas, he worked with future first round draft picks Chance Ruffin, Taylor Jungmann and Corey Knebel.

Since 2017 Oklahoma has seen 27 pitchers under Johnson’s tutelage selected in the MLB Draft. Cade Cavalli and Cade Horton were selected in the first round in 2020 and 2022, respectively. 

The point is you listen when the Sooners skipper is talking about pitching. He knows a thing or two. Wednesday night’s Kyson Witherspoon performance was yet another example of what’s been building for the last two years. He’s got next. 

“He might be one of the best I’ve ever had,” said Johnson during the Sooners postgame radio show following a 3-2 win over Georgia. 

During postgame radio interview following OU’s 3-2 win over Georgia, Skip Johnson says Kyson Witherspoon ‘might be one of the best he’s ever had’. Pretty good company to be in. pic.twitter.com/4mwB9zEU44

— Eddie Radosevich (@Eddie_Rado) May 22, 2025

For the second time in a month, Witherspoon worked up and down one of the nation’s best line ups, limiting the Bulldogs to just two runs on five hits and striking out eight. The Bulldogs didn’t send more than four batters to the plate in an inning against the future first round draft pick. 

After Tre Phelps tripled in the bottom of the first, Witherspoon responded with a strikeout and fly out. In the fifth, he negotiated around a leadoff single with three consecutive outs. It wasn’t until the eighth when his 107th pitch (also a season-high) of the night was parked over the right field wall by Henry Hunter that you thought he might run out of gas. 

A tremendous outing for Witherspoon who has now thrown 14.2 innings against Georgia this season, allowing just three runs with 16 strikeouts. 

Small ball offense does enough 

This time of the year college baseball teams will take runs anyway you can get them. Sure, it’d be nice to have a line up that could mash. Remember Earl Weaver’s famous quote about the three run home run? 

But sometimes you are going to have to manufacture runs. And that’s what Oklahoma did on Wednesday night, cashing in on leadoff baserunners, moving runners over and driving them in. 

With the Sooners trailing 1-0 in the fourth, Easton Carmichael started the inning with a single. Jaxon Willits followed with a double. Brayden Horton tied the game, lifting a sacrifice fly to center. 

In the sixth Trey Gamble started the visitor half with a single to right. Carmichael walked on four pitches. Willits sacrificed himself to move the pair in scoring position. Dayton Tockey drove in Gamble with a ground ball to short. Horton extended the Sooners lead to 3-1 with an RBI single into center. 

Gambill and Willis led Oklahoma with two hits a piece. 

Next up

Cade Crossland will get the ball on Thursday night versus 4-seed Vanderbilt. He went 5.2 ip, 5 hits, 2 runs (1 earned), 2 walks and 8 Ks vs. Vanderbilt on April 11. OU won 9-4.

First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.