Texas maintains dominance

By Jeff Johncox
The Norman Transcript

June 27, 2009 01:03 am

— Friday night at the Sunbelt Classic always means one thing: Oklahoma vs. Texas.
The Sunbelt’s version of the Red River rivalry always adds a spark and a little extra incentive for the players. It also brings out the fans.
A nice-sized crowd piled into the Norman High bleachers Friday night, and they saw Texas continue its Sunbelt dominance.
The Lone Star State’s finest trailed through the first four innings, but they pulled away and ended up routing Oklahoma 11-5.
For the Texas players, winning is always nice, but beating Oklahoma is always a little nicer.
“It’s great because there’s a lot of people in the stands, more than I expected,” Texas’ Josh Elander said. “Oklahoma has great baseball year in and year out. You know they’re going to be tough.”
After all, the rivalry between the Sooners and Longhorns is one of the biggest in the country, and there’s even more behind the two states’ rivalry.
In 1919, Texas Rangers drove off an Oklahoma oil-testing crew from the disputed banks of the Red River. And the Oklahoma governor even showed up at the border once in an Army tank.
Fortunately, the Sunbelt rivalry is a little more on the good natured side.
“I’m going to TCU, but I’ll always be a Longhorn at heart,” Elander said with a laugh. “The same goes for everybody (in the dugout).”
The old slogan goes, “Everything’s bigger in Texas.”
That includes state pride.
Texans fly the state flag like it’s the Star Spangled Banner, and they proudly boast about their home state. The players from south of the Red River who came up to play baseball this week are no exception.
“We think Texas is the greatest state in America,” Elander said. “We want to come up here and show that. We have great prep sports in Texas.”
The Oklahomans had a lot of pride on the line Friday night, too.
“The Red River thing, you always get a little jacked up for Texas,” starting pitcher Ryan Gibson said.
Oklahoma went into Friday’s game reeling, and coming off a 25-1 thumping earlier in the day to Ohio.
Oklahoma took an early lead. But an error with two outs in the fifth inning led to a big Texas rally, and things fell apart in a hurry.
That’s just another piece of the Sunbelt’s biggest rivalry.
The two teams always meet under the lights on Friday. Though they’ve met just once in the championship round, that Friday night game has decided which team went to the final plenty of times.
Texas got the best of Oklahoma for the 2005 championship at OU’s L. Dale Mitchell Park.
“A lot of times, it’s Oklahoma and Texas playing for a spot in the final,” Gibson said. “And every Friday night, it’s tradition, it’s Oklahoma and Texas.”
So far, the Texans have plenty to be proud of. They’re one win from becoming the first Sunbelt team to run the table.
“We know our team and we know we have a great shot of going undefeated,” Elander said. “We have a lot of talented players and we just need to come out and play the ball we’ve been playing all week.”
Oklahoma is on the other side of the spectrum. It’s 1-6 and has lost both close games and blowouts.
The Oklahomans’ only victory came Thursday night against Canada.
“We’ve had some things not go our way, and we’ve had some places where we didn’t step up. It’s baseball. That happens.”
Oklahoma gets things started early today when it takes on Illinois in the seventh-place game at 11 a.m. at Noble.
Texas will battle Arizona in the championship game at 7 p.m. at Norman High.
“It’s a new day,” Gibson said. “Baseball’s great because every day is a new day. Anyone can beat anyone.”
Jeff Johncox
366-3535
jjohncox@normantranscript.com