Baseballl falls to Oklahoma in Norman Regional

It was déjà vu for North Carolina as the players walked off the field of L. Dale Mitchell Park Sunday night after losing to No. 1 seed Oklahoma in game six of the Norman Regional of the NCAA College World Series.

Just as the Tar Heel offense had struggled against the Sooner bullpen on Saturday in game two of the regional round, UNC suffered a similar fate on Sunday when they fell to Oklahoma 3-2 in the final game of the Norman Regional.

Before the loss on Sunday, North Carolina went through No. 2 California and No. 4 Oral Roberts to play Oklahoma.

UNC started the weekend strong with a commanding 12-3 victory over California on Friday night.

A productive first inning saw the Tar Heels take a 6-0 lead over the Golden Bears that they would hang on to for the remainder of the game.

With the Friday night win, UNC advanced in the Regional to play Oklahoma on Saturday.

In their first matchup of the weekend against Oklahoma, the Tar Heels trailed for most of the game, until the bottom of the ninth when UNC would tie the game by scoring three runs and forcing the game into extra innings.

But a double by Oklahoma sophomore Erik Ross in the top of the tenth would quickly change the momentum of the game and give the Sooners the one run lead. UNC couldn’t produce in the tenth, and would go on to lose the game 3-2.

Now facing elimination, the Tar Heels would take on Oral Roberts.
In what would turn out to be a one-sided game, the score remained tied at zero until the fourth inning when UNC scored two runs on three hits.

Oral Roberts quickly tied it up in the bottom of the fourth, but two home runs by Levi Michael and Seth Baldwin in the fifth would give UNC the lead once more, and seal the 12-4 victory for the Tar Heels.

The stage was set for Sunday night’s matchup, as UNC would have to defeat Oklahoma twice if they hoped avoid elimination and progress to the next round of the College World Series.

The Tar Heels were first on the board, taking advantage of a Sooner error and earning a run off of a base hit by Baldwin. But it would be the only time UNC maintained the lead throughout the game.

After Oklahoma took the lead 2-1 in the sixth, UNC tied it with a home run from Ryan Graepel. The tie was short-lived, as Oklahoma would regain the lead in the seventh and hold on to it for the remaining innings.

For the second time in the same weekend, North Carolina would fall to Oklahoma by one with a final score of 3-2.

The loss marks the end of the season for the Tar Heels, leaving them with an overall record of 38-22 for the season.

Although the season started out rocky for UNC, they were able to regain their composure and finish the season strong by winning 14 of their last 19 games.

With the win, Oklahoma advances to the Charlottesville Super Regional to play No. 1 Virginia in a best of three series over the weekend.