By Sean Ryan, CBI Co-Founder
BLACKSBURG, Va. – When Cade Horton committed to Oklahoma in 2019, Sooners fans likely could envision the ultra-decorated, two-sport high school phenom helping pitch – and hit – the team to Omaha.
As short as three weeks ago, the Sooners and their fans likely had some doubts. The redshirt-freshman righthander allowed eight hits and five earned runs in three innings in a start against West Virginia on May 15 and followed that up with eight hits and eight earned runs in 3.1 innings against Texas Tech a week later.
But there Horton was on Sunday afternoon, given the ball in Game 3 of the Blacksburg Super Regional against a potent Virginia Tech lineup with a trip to the College World Series on the line.
Horton turned in a brilliant performance, allowing just two hits and two earned runs with eight strikeouts over six-plus innings. He got plenty of help up and down the order as eight batters drove in at least one run – led by Tanner Tredaway, who went 4 for 5 with two doubles, two homers, three runs and three RBI – and the Sooners scored in seven of nine innings in an 11-2 win over the Hokies to earn the program’s first trip to Omaha since 2010.
“My plan going in was just to attack and get ahead,” said Horton, who entered with a 6.03 ERA and improved to 4-2. “And honestly just focus on hitting the target. That’s all you can control when pitching is just hitting the target.”
Horton, who originally committed to Ole Miss for baseball before switching to his hometown school to play football and baseball, didn’t have much of a senior year because of the pandemic. He missed last season after enduring Tommy John surgery. Splitting mound time with time at third base – he made 47 starts at third base, the last during that West Virginia series – getting into a groove on the mound has taken time.
“Just coming off an injury, not playing since my junior year of high school, it was really tough coming back,” Horton said. “And so I think it was more getting game experience and then also settling down and just focusing on one pitch at a time. We talk about it all the time in this program, just take it one pitch at a time, win one pitch.
“In those starts [WVU, Texas Tech], I’d been getting myself worked up and overthrowing. These past couple starts, I learned from the bad ones and took it one pitch at a time and focused on what I want to do with the pitch.”
In his past three starts, Horton has allowed 11 hits and five runs with 25 strikeouts and five walks in 17.2 innings. Before yesterday, those starts included a win over Omaha-bound Texas and a tough loss in which he allowed two earned runs in 6.1 innings against Florida in the Regionals.
The Sooners (42-22) jumped on Hokies starter Jordan Geber (1-2) for two quick runs in the first as shortstop Peyton Graham and Tredaway, OU’s centerfielder, each hit two-strike solo homers for a 2-0 lead.
Virginia Tech (45-14), the No. 4 national seed, tied it at 2 in the third when Eduardo Malinowski singled and came in on Carson DeMartini’s two-run homer. Those two hits would be the last of the day for an offense that entered the day ranked No. 9 in the nation in average and No. 2 in slugging percentage.
The Hokies struggled with Horton’s slider, and he mixed his changeup in effectively. He retired 11 of the final 13 batters he faced with six strikeouts over that span. Relievers Chazz Martinez (1 IP, 2 K) and Trevin Michael (2 IP, 4 K) didn’t allow a hit over the final three innings as the three Sooners pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts.
“His breaking ball was really good, I thought his fastball getting to his glove side was really good,” Sooners coach Skip Johnson said of Horton. “His presence is always really good. You could see him walk off the mound when he recognized that he kind of got out of control…I thought he was outstanding going pitch to pitch.”
Hokies catcher Cade Hunter said, “He just mixed well, wasn’t very predictable, hit his spots, made good pitches and they played good defense behind him.”
Tredaway hit another two-strike solo homer to left-center to open the fourth inning for a 3-2 lead. Brett Squires added an RBI single and Kendall Pettis a sacrifice fly as Oklahoma scored three in the inning for a 5-2 lead and start a streak of six straight innings in which they scored to close the game.
“This lineup, it helped me a lot today,” said Horton, who passed for 3,084 yards and 26 touchdowns as a senior quarterback at Norman High. “It’s a lot easier to pitch with a lead, it’s more comfortable. Like Skip said, your stuff gets better when pitching with a lead.”
Tredaway, who homered here yesterday in the Sooners’ loss to the Hokies, doubled in his next two at-bats. In all, Oklahoma homered five times – all solo shots – the first four coming with two strikes, and nine of their 15 hits came with two strikes. Pettis (1 for 3, 2 RBI) and Jackson Nicklaus added late homers for the Sooners.
“We just kind of shortened up our swings a little bit,” Tredaway said. “I think me and Kenny [Pettis] both do. We like to choke up a little bit, keep our swings short. The biggest thing is that there was stuff left over the plate, and we were able to do some damage with it.”
Pettis made three fantastic plays in left field, including a long running catch to the gap, a diving catch on a sinking liner and a brilliant catch along the fence line in foul territory before flipping over the fence.
“In a do or die game, I was really just like, screw it, I’m going to jump, I don’t care,” Pettis said.
Although it fell short of Omaha, Virginia Tech had a season few of its fans will forget. The first regular-season ACC title preceded the Hokies’ first trip to the Super Regionals.
“They’ve accomplished an incredible feat,” said Virginia Tech coach John Szefc, who previously led Maryland to two trips to the Super Regionals. “They might not even understand it right now. But what they’ve accomplished here is very, very respectful, and it will be the standard that future teams here will try to work to live up to for many years to come.”
He later added: “Every future player, coach, etcetera will look back at this year with a very high standard and a very high reverence. And when these guys come back to work out, to talk, you’re going to roll the red carpet out for these guys because they set a humongously high standard that you strive for for a long time.”
Ten years ago, Oklahoma visited Virginia in the Regional round and beat the Cavaliers to reach the Super Regionals. This return trip to the Old Dominion resulted in the first home series defeat of Virginia Tech this season and the program’s 11th trip to the College World Series.
“It’s a dream come true for sure,” Tredaway said. “These guys, we’ve all just worked our tail off from the fall. It’s a new group of guys, and we’ve just come so close within this year. I just can’t be more proud of these guys and all the work that we put into it. It’s led up to this moment now.”