— COLUMBIA, S.C. — Oklahoma believes it plays its best with its backs to the wall. If that’s the case, it’s now nestled in a comfortable spot.

The Sooners lost 5-0 to South Carolina in Game 1 of their best-of-three Super Regional series at Carolina Stadium on Saturday.The Sooners (42-24) have to win Game 2 at 6 p.m. today or the Gamecocks will secure a third straight trip to the College World Series and a chance to win a third consecutive national championship.

It didn’t take OU very long to get into that corner. The Gamecocks (43-17) erupted for three runs in the second inning and only needed two hits to do it. The wheels fell off for Sooner starting pitcher Jordan John (8-8) early. He, gave up a single to Erik Payne and then an RBI single to LB Dantzler.

Those were the only hits in the inning. But a wild pitch brought in Payne, and Dantzler scored on a sacrifice fly.

“It was very important to go out there and establish an early lead like that, especially in a game like this,” said South Carolina center fielder Evan Marzilli, who went 2-for-3.

John threw just two innings and 39 pitches, and it was clearly on a short leash.

“He didn’t have the velocity he had on Monday. Maybe it was the environment, or maybe it was something else,” OU coach Sunny Golloway said. “He clearly didn’t have his best stuff. His fastball didn’t have a lot of movement.”

John will be a viable option if the Sooners can win today.

They must get something going at the plate to keep from getting swept. The hot bats and opportunistic hitting the Sooners rode to a regional title stayed in Charlottesville, Va. They finished the night with six hits, but none were for extra bases, and none came with runners in scoring position.

South Carolina pitcher Michael Roth (7-1) made every clutch pitch he had to make. The left-hander went 7 2/3 innings, scattering six hits and striking out three against two walks.

The Sooners left seven baserunners stranded and were 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.

“He had some deception and we were chasing pitches out of the zone,” OU shortstop Caleb Bushyhead said of Roth. “The big thing for us is we weren’t getting hits at the right time. We had guys on all night. I couldn’t tell you how many times we had a runner at first and second or even third and we never came through in the clutch.”

OU’s best chances were to get to Roth early in the game. Four of those hits came in the first three innings. The Sooners did nothing with them.

While the Sooners will be able to go back to John if it can win today, they did burn through Dillon Overton on Saturday. He entered in the third inning and went the rest of the way. Overton allowed two runs on six hits and also struck out six. He threw 101 pitches.

“Coach G told me before the game to be ready whenever. If Jordan threw short, he could still go on Monday. I told him I was ready whenever,” Overton said. “When I came in, I was just trying to minimize the damage.”

Overton did, holding the Gamecocks to be scoreless until giving RBI singles to Joey Pankake and Christian Walker, who went 2-for-4, in the seventh inning.

After that, the Sooners knew they would be in that must-win position today. They advanced to the Super Regional series by winning four straight elimination game last week at Virginia and seemed to relish it.

“Our backs have been against the wall all year, and we’ve prevailed, for the most part. I don’t see why this is any different,” Bushyhead said.