Oklahoma star Trey Gambill on benefits of SEC gauntlet: ‘You’re playing the best of the best’
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Oklahoma star outfielder Trey Gambill didn’t start his college baseball career at Oklahoma, transferring to OU for the 2025 season from faraway Salt Lake Community College in Utah.
He’s from Alpine, Utah, so after staying close to home to begin his collegiate baseball life, Gambill decided to make a big change. He came all the way to Oklahoma and found himself in the rugged SEC, with the Sooners moving from the Big 12, so Gambill’s change of scenery was timed perfectly with OU’s conference switch.
Gambill wouldn’t have had it any other way, and now the senior will get to represent the SEC in the College World Series Championship Finals starting Saturday in Omaha against North Carolina.
Game 1 of the best-of-3 series will begin at about 3 p.m. ET on ESPN, and Gambill believes the Sooners’ experience in having to get through the SEC this season helped prepare them for a long NCAA Tournament run.
“I think the SEC just offers a great preparation period for this type of tournament. There’s no breaks. Just like in this tournament, you’re not playing any bad teams, you’re not playing against any mediocre teams, you’re playing the best of the best,” Gambill told reporters during Friday’s pre-finals press conference.
For Gambill, there’s no better preparation for what North Carolina will bring to the table than what Oklahoma saw all season long in the SEC.
“In the SEC, it’s similar (to the NCAA Tournament). Every Friday night, you’re going to face a guy that’s really good, similar to what North Carolina has,” Gambill said. “The SEC just prepared us for always being ready to put our best out there.”
And after using the SEC as an extended preparation for what they’re doing right now, Oklahoma has the chance to bring a national title trophy back to the SEC.
Gambill and the Sooners are so close to winning the program’s first national title since 1994, but they will have to solve North Carolina this weekend. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the odds for Oklahoma and UNC to be holding the championship trophy when the dust settles in Omaha:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
