Cord Rager and the Oklahoma Sooners baseball team continue to roll in the postseason, as the OU lefthander led his team to 9-0 shutout of the No. 7 seed Alabama, in the first-round of the College World Series Saturday at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb. A sellout crowd of 24,579 was treated to a spectacular game by the Sooners.

Rager (6-3) pitched seven innings, his longest outing of the season, giving up only three hits while striking out eight batters. It was Rager’s third straight pitching gem, all coming in the NCAA Tournament.

“I just tried to tell myself, ‘It’s like any other game,’ and I just worked the process,” Rager said after the game. “Everything else just kind of fades away, so I had tunnel focus.”

OU coach Skip Johnson gave credit to Rager and the Sooners defense.

“Cord did a great job of staying in the process,” Johnson said. “Our defense was really good. Getting good at-bats and sustained some rallies, and LaChance hits a big home run to separate the game.”

The Sooners belted out 11 hits in the game including a home run by Deiten Lachance who finished the game with two hits, two RBI and three runs scored.

OU advanced to play Georgia on Monday evening. The Bulldogs advanced after beating Tennessee, 7-1, on Saturday.

Xander Mercurius pitched 7.1 innings, his longest outing of the season and picked up his first win of the year, as OU beat Georgia 4-3.zHe (1-2) threw 104 total pitches, 72 for strikes. He scattered six hits, had a career-high nine strikeouts, two walks and allowed three runs (all coming on solo homers) before leaving with one out in the top of the eighth inning.

The Sooners jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, when LaChance grounded a ball to shortstop, allowing Jason Walk to score from third, followed by Jaxon Willits belting a two-run homer.

Georgia scored one run in the top of the fourth, but the Sooners took a 4-1 lead in the bottom half of the inning when Brendan Brock hit a solo home run over the right-centerfield fence.

The Bulldogs hit a pair of home runs later in the game to keep it close, but the Sooners were able to close out the victory.

“I’m really proud of our team for getting some big hits at some times at the right time, and Xander really throwing, and Cleveland coming in and just trusting the process and taking it one pitch at a time,” Sooner coach Skip Johnson said. “Really proud of these guys.”

OU is scheduled to play the winner of the elimination game between Georgia and Texas (who play on Tuesday evening) on Wednesday evening.