How Nick Wesloski, OU baseball's latest freshman phenom, sent Sooners to CWS champ series

OMAHA, NE — Nick Wesloski, with his glove in hand and hair flowing out of his cap, exited the Oklahoma baseball dugout after putting on a show at Charles Schwab Field.

>Waiting for him in the tunnel was Sooners quarterback John Mateer — who Wesloski faced in high school football when he was a freshman at McKinney Boyd and Mateer was starring Little Elm in Texas — with a hug.

>“It was a positive day overall,” Wesloski said.

>The OU true freshman right-hander more than lived up to the hype set by fellow freshmen Xander Mercurius and Cord Rager in the Sooners’ two previous College World Series games.

>Wesloski, unfazed by the 24,446 fans in just his second career start, allowed only four hits, one earned run and two walks with four strikeouts in 5 ⅔ innings during the Sooners’ 11-4 win over Georgia on Wednesday. With the win, Wesloski helped catapult them into the championship series for the second time in five seasons.

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>OU’s true freshmen starting pitchers — Wesloski, Mercurius and Rager — have combined for 20 innings, 21 strikeouts and four walks during the CWS. The trio owns a 1.80 ERA across the three games. Not to mention, the Sooners are only the second program to start three consecutive freshmen in the CWS since 1999.

>“Nick, Cord, Xander, really all the freshmen, they're unbelievable,” junior outfielder Jason Walk said. “We knew they had it in the fall. So coming into spring, it's really no surprise that they're pitching really well because we had to face them, too.”

>Wesloski had only thrown more than 3 ⅓ innings in an outing once this season entering the CWS. He lasted a career-long seven innings against The Citadel in the Atlanta Regional.

>The moment wasn’t too big for him. Johnson remembers watching Wesloski pitch in the Connie Mack World Series and the calmness he brought to the mound.

>Wesloski put together a good fall and was set to be the Sooners’ Tuesday starter before suffering an impingement, which set him back. Now, he’s become OU’s third option.

>“I’m just trying to build him up,” Johnson said. "He faced a team in The Citadel, they had all older guys and they were really good players. It was a really good baseball team and he pitched extremely well there. I didn't think the moment would bother him that much.

>“He's a perfectionist a little bit. So, when you're handling perfectionists and pitching, you gotta say, ‘Hey, it's all right if you miss a target.’ And you gotta just pat him on the back and try to get him away from it and try to get them to focus on something else besides being perfect.”

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>Johnson’s heart was heavy watching Wesloski pitch from the dugout. Jim Gatewood, a former high school baseball coach in Texas who died earlier this year, helped the Sooners identify Wesloski.

>“Nick was really good,” Johnson said. “It was on my heart at the end of the game, during the game, watching him pitch. So, I’d really like to thank the late Jim Gatewood for helping us with that.”

>Wesloski sat mostly 92-93 mph with his fastball and utilized a curveball to get the Bulldogs swinging. He retired seven straight Georgia hitters at one point.

>OU will need outings like it’s gotten from its three freshmen if it wants to win a national title. The Sooners will face a red-hot North Carolina team in a best-of-three series beginning on Saturday.

>Less than 20 minutes before first pitch, Wesloski was getting loose in right field. The former high school quarterback was tossing the pigskin, even pretending to evade defenders and scrambling to make throws.

>With limited experience under his belt, the first-year Sooner couldn’t have been more calm. He credits Rager and Mercurius for his confidence.

>“Cord and Xander, those two have been the most inspirational, influential for me throughout the season,” Wesloski said. “Starting off, I struggled a little bit in my first three outings. But seeing the way that they dominate and the way they carry themselves … Those guys are just elite in everything they do.

>“No matter how young I am, what year I am, those guys make it look like it's possible. For me it's just added to my confidence level and the way that I go out and compete because they've done it.”

class="exclude-from-newsgate">Colton Sulley covers the Oklahoma Sooners for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Colton? He can be reached at csulley@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @colton_sulley. Support Colton's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing adigital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

>This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU baseball beats Georgia on Nick Wesloski gem in College World Series