After the dust settled at Rosenblatt Stadium on Friday evening following the Sooners’ 4-3 loss to South Carolina that ended the Sooners’ hopes of a national title, head coach Sunny Golloway knew the reality of the defeat.

The run for the program’s third national title at the College World Series was over for Sooners. But the journey was just beginning.

Golloway understood that getting the program back to Omaha, Neb., after a 15-year drought was exactly what the team had been working toward all season.

“You know, after a 15-year drought for the University of Oklahoma, the sting of tonight will go away,” Golloway said following the elimination. “ It’s all part of the process of building a program an restoring the tradition, and this is part of that.”

At OU, the main tradition is winning. The 2010 team proved why Sooner fans should believe that tradition is returning to OU baseball.

The culmination of a season that wasn’t supposed to be, came to a close in extra innings with one strike left for Jackie Bradley Jr., the Gamecocks leading hitter who had gone 0 -4 during the game. The Sooners had overcome the nation’s No. 5 seed Virginia, in the Charlottesville Super Regional after dropping the opening game of the series. The Sooners dominated in the last two games at Davenport field, outscoring the Cavaliers 21-7 in the final two games, including an 11-0 shutout win thrown starter Bobby Shore and closer Ryan Duke during the series’ final game.

Taking a look back at the beginning of the 2010 season, youth on the team had many doubters wondering how the team would compare to what past teams had already accomplished. The team was predicted to finish in a disappointing 4th place in the Big 12 coaches’ preseason poll behind Texas, Kansas and Texas A&M. At the beginning of the season, Texas was ranked No. 1 in four of the major preseason polls.

“I know everyone is wondering how we are going to replace Garrett Richards, Andrew Doyle, Jamie Johnson, J.T. Wise, Bryant Hernandez, etc.,” Golloway said at the beginning of the season. “But we will be saying the same thing this off-season about this year’s veterans. And in a couple of years, we are going to be saying, ‘Wow, how do you replace a Drew Harrison, Ryan Gibson.’ The key (every year) is replacing the leaders.”

Last season, the Sooners lost a total of nine players from 2009’s roster, including eight underclassmen and two All-Americans. But youth to Golloway meant opportunity, both for recruitment possibilities and for the recruits themselves.

“A lot of the players we signed in the Fall (of 2009) knew they had the opportunity to come in and play right away,” Golloway said. “That is why they came to Oklahoma. We feel very good about the youth of this team because that youth is going to turn into experience quickly.”

Youthful standouts this year: pitchers Zach Neal and Bobby Shore

Neal threw for a 8-3 record on the season with a 4.43 ERA, starting in all 18 games he pitched in. The junior from Flower Mound, Texas, gave up 112 hits and 56 runs (52 earned) with 95 strikeouts and 24 walks in 105.2 innings. Neal’s 95 strikeouts led the pitching staff in that category.

Shore came up big in the postseason, blanking the Cavaliers through 8 innings in the Super Regional shutout against Virginia that helped send the Sooners to Omaha. The Oceanside, Calif., native collected a 10-5 record with a 4.12 ERA, starting in all 17 games he appeared in. The junior right-hander gave up 90 hits and 45 runs (43 earned), striking out 77 while walking 36 in 94 innings pitched.

Season Notables

The 2010 season was truly a special one for the program. The Sooners ended the season with a 50-18 record. The last time the program accumulated 50 wins was during the 1994 season (50-17) in route to a second national title.

The 68 games played by the Sooners this season were the most played by a Sooner team under coach Golloway. The previous record of 67 games was set in 2006, where the team finished 45-22. The Sooners finished second in the Big 12 standings behind Texas and were the only Big 12 team represented in the College World Series.

OU earned the opportunity to host its fifth regional at L. Dale Mitchell Baseball Park during the 2010 season. The Sooners was also a regional host during the 2009 season.

With the win over Virginia in the Charlottesville Super Regional, the Sooners headed to Omaha for the 2010 Men’s College World Series. The 2010 appearance was the 10th in program history.

All-American Garrett Buechele led the team in batting average for second-consecutive year. Last year’s Big 12 Freshman of the Year hit for a .359 average in 65 games. His 19-game hit streak that ended in May was a career high. Buechele’s also hit for a .630 slugging percentage and a .438 on-base percentage. The Arlington, Texas, native collected 94 hits, 65 RBIs and led the team with 17 home runs on the season.

Now that the season’s over, the team has a lot to look forward and accomplish in the off-season. They’ve already proved that youth isn’t a hindrance. Now they have the experience of playing in some close games against some really good teams. Just making a return trip to the new TD Ameritrade field in Omaha, the new stadium for the College World Series beginning next season, won’t be enough to satisfy the hunger the Sooners have to win the third national title.

“I would hope in the next five years, instead of saying we have been in four out of the last five regional finals, that we will have four or five appearances in the College World Series,” Golloway said in February.

So far, the team’s off to a good start.