2017 NCAA Baseball Tournament results: Xavier falls to Oklahoma

The Xavier Musketeers’ stint in the 2017 NCAA Tournament got off to a bumpy start, as the Oklahoma Sooners thumped the Big East Tournament champions 7-2 to send the Musketeers to the elimination round.

OU put a whooping on Xavier in the seventh inning. Down 2-0, the Sooners proceeded to put up all seven runs they scored in the game in that very stanza. They sent 12 men to the plate and racked up all their runs with two outs in the inningg. A glut of them came on five consecutive singles that the Sooners picked up in the frame, with the first three coming after leftfielder Cade Harris brought them in with a bases-clearing double.

The Musketeers’ offense was guided by the bat of Nate Soria. X’s catcher delivered the two runs Xavier wound up with in the second inning, scorching a double down the left field line. Will LaRue and Mitch Gallagher were brought in after Soria’s two-bagger, and at the time, it looked like that would be all X would need to come away with a win.

Alas, it was not to be. Now Xavier will await the loser of the matchup between Louisville and Radford as they hope to not be bounced in their first two games.