LAS VEGAS – Everyone loves a good ride, but the thrill that the Oklahoma Freedom have endured over the course of the PBR Team Series feels more like a roller coaster than a Sunday cruise.

Despite dropping seven of its first 10 games to begin the year, Oklahoma ended the regular season with a 16-12 record, tied with the No. 1 Austin Gamblers and No. 2 Texas Rattlers but seeded at No. 3 due to having fewer bonus points than the aforementioned teams.

And now, after picking up a dramatic 267.25-265 victory over the Carolina Cowboys Saturday night, their postseason journey lives on.

“Welcome to Championship Sunday,” Freedom Head Coach Cord McCoy said in the Oklahoma locker room following the victory. “We had the harder pen and still won. Let’s walk in here tomorrow, be great, and win a freakin’ championship.”

With experience and victories come confidence. But for the CEO of Outlaw Nation, he’s been in the driver’s seat for a while now.

“We feel confident,” Chase Outlaw said. “We came in here, we didn’t get all five rode, but we did whatever it took. Our engine is full steam ahead. We aren’t looking back to it tomorrow night.”

Able to rebound from its first-round loss to the red-hot Nashville Stampede, Oklahoma didn’t come to play in Friday night’s Last Chance Game. They came to work.

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“When we came in after this first loss yesterday, we didn’t come in and have no big speech or anything like that. We didn’t have to because we all looked each other in the eyes and we knew what had to be done,” Outlaw said. “Little slip right there in that first game last night, but we knew what had to be done when we came back, and we rode bulls. Every situation like this, everybody’s going to need a little bit of luck somewhere. We kept our heads down and we kept moving forward, and that’s what it took.”

Eventually besting fellow Last Chance Game opponents in the Missouri Thunder and Kansas City Outlaws, Oklahoma showed up with a vengeance, eventually recording a season-best 359.5 points in the first three-way competition in PBR Team Series history.

Getting off one roller coaster and jumping back in line to ride another Saturday, the Freedom witnessed Carolina’s first three riders (Cooper Davis, Mason Taylor and Thursday night’s Challenger Series event title winner Sandro Batista) record qualified rides for the blue and yellow.

Thankfully for the Freedom, this wasn’t their first trip to the amusement park.

Starting things off on the right foot, Outlaw posted an 89-point effort aboard Homegrown for Oklahoma in the opening go.

Seemingly appearing out of thin air for Oklahoma during the Championship weekend after logging two attempts all season for the Freedom (July 25, 26 in Cheyenne, Wyoming), 34-year-old Trevor Kastner continued his perfect 2-for-2 weekend. Kastner doubled down on his 91.5-point ride on Alakazam from Friday with a 90.25-point score on Sneaky Situation, granting his squad a 1.5-point advantage.

“Trevor’s kind of been our secret weapon,” Eli Vastbinder shared in a postgame press conference following Saturday’s win. “He kind of disappeared and went rodeoing for a while, but it was good having him back here. He doesn’t put much thought into it. He just knows how good he is, shows up and shows out, and it’s definitely a blessing to have him around.”

Following Batista’s ride in the third frame and a pair of unsuccessful attempts from Trevor Reiste and opponent Marco Eguchi, it was Vastbinder’s time to shine.

No stranger to success, let alone on the world’s biggest stage in Las Vegas, the veteran rose to the occasion, granted 88 points after matching Prime Tested jump for jump in the fourth, solidifying a 2.25-point win for Oklahoma and thus avoiding another Last Chance Game.

Happy for the win, Bud Light in hand, Outlaw recognized his team's success but knows they’ll have to come to work one more time before riding off into the sunset.

The Freedom will take on the No. 5 Arizona Ridge Riders in the Semifinals on Sunday (4 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network).

“These are some of the best bull riders on the planet,” Outlaw said. “We’re down to the last four making it into the finals. To do that and conquer, do our jobs, being calm, cool and collected, it’s been a battle with some great warriors, and only the strongest survive.”

Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media