Big Blast Into Bay Powers Oklahoma To Twinbill Sweep, Wahoos Classic win

Down two strikes in the seventh inning of a tied game, all Oklahoma's Tyler Hardman was seeking was a shorter swing and a ball in play.
What ensued was a big blast and a baseball rolling into Pensacola Bay.
Hardman's prodigious two-run, bay bomb - the only home run hit in the weekend - was followed by his two-run single in the ninth inning as the 19th ranked Sooners beat Virginia 5-1 to sweep Saturday's doubleheader and take the series in the inaugural Wahoos Classic at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
"I just tried to shorten my swing up and when you can make it super basic, sometimes a lot better things happen," said Hardman, the Sooners' junior first baseman from Corona, Calif. "You always go to a new field, a minor league park and it's fun to say you hit a ball out somewhere, but during a game, it's everything for the team.
"You get two strikes, you shorten and try to simplify things."
The win followed Oklahoma's 7-2 victory in Saturday's first game. The doubleheader was arranged late Friday to avoid the likelihood of inclement weather Sunday, which would have prevented the teams from playing the entire series.
In both games Saturday, the Sooners got solid starting pitching, a combined shutout effort from their bullpen, all backed up by great defensive plays. In three games, Oklahoma did not commit an error.
"I think the big moments in the game were huge," said Sooners' veteran coach Skip Johnson. "(Starting pitcher) Dane (Acker) set the tone in the second game by throwing strike one. The first game was really big, because we separated the game early and kept the momentum.
"The difference is when you have two power five (conference) schools like that matched up early in the season, there is going to be a lot of focus. It was like a (NCAA) regional type of atmosphere with those two teams."
Hardman finished 3-for-10 in the two games with all four RBI in the second game.  
"One thing about Tyler that the public may not know is that he's our hardest worker," Johnson said. "And that's the separater. The whole team knows it. He stays in there and hits and takes care of his responsibility."
Virginia won Friday's opening game 6-0. Saturday's second game included the collegiate debut of UVA's acclaimed freshman pitcher Nate Savino.
The lefthander entered in the eighth inning and his first college pitch was clocked at 95 mph.
He struggled in the ninth when loading the bases and yielding the two-run single against Hardman, but his consistent, mid-90's, radar gun numbers offered a glimpse into the future.
"I was just trying to do the same thing (against Savino)," Hardman said. "Shorten up and another good thing happened. But really, none of this matters without the great effort from our two starters (pitching) and our bullpen. They kept us in the game.
"That is why the team atmosphere is so huge here… one big family."
Both teams had late afternoon flights Sunday from Pensacola to their respective college cities. Virginia begins a 15-game homestand on Tuesday. Oklahoma begins a two-team, eight-game homestand Tuesday.
Two clear-sky days and spectacular sunsets for the games finished off a big impression Blue Wahoos Stadium created for the players.
"You come out here and everyone takes their phones out to get a picture of where they played," Hardman said.