𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Due in large part to the transfer portal, the best teams in recent years have typically been older — especially on the mound.

Oklahoma is an outlier. The Sooners have played seven games in the NCAA Tournament, and five have been started by freshmen, two by Cord Rager and Xander Mercurius and one by Nick Wesloski.

“We’re not afraid to put them out there,” Oklahoma coach Skip Johnson said. “That’s the biggest thing. Our players have confidence in them because they faced them in the fall, and they knew how good they were.”

Oklahoma started the season with two juniors in the weekend rotation — Cameron Johnson and LJ Mercurius. Johnson started 15 games but struggled down the stretch and has made only one appearance in the postseason (two earned runs without recording an out in a start against Georgia Tech). Mercurius, Xander’s older brother, has been used out of the bullpen for the past month.