No. 5 UNC baseball’s vaunted pitching stumbled against Oklahoma’s hot bats on Sunday night, as the Sooners staved off elimination and forced a Game 7 regional final with a 9-5 win.
The Diamond Heels could not string together enough consistent play to advance to the super regional round, as six Carolina pitchers issued eight walks and UNC’s offense could not find its clutch hitting against an Oklahoma team who rolled to a 17-1 win in the early game to eliminate Nebraska.
After UNC benefited from timely two-out hitting in their 11-5 Saturday win, the Sooners delivered their own — with the game-defining stretch coming in the sixth inning. Freshman Drew Dickerson crushed a two-run homer to left-center off Carolina sophomore reliever Olin Johnson in the bottom of the sixth to propel the Sooners ahead 4-3. The blast scored Dasan Harris, who homered to initially put Oklahoma on the board in the game and tacked on the SEC program’s final run with another solo shot in the eighth.
After getting two outs, a pair of fielding mistakes by the Diamond Heels extended the inning. Oklahoma shortstop Jaxon Willits took advantage, ripping a two-run double off Folger Boaz to push the Sooners’ lead to three runs. Willits shushed the crowd while running to first base, as the Boshamer Stadium faithful boo-ed him after the highly-touted sophomore chirped at the UNC infield earlier in the game and caused the head coaches to come out onto the field. Willits was eventually driven around the diamond to add another run and bring the score to 7-3 to end the sixth.
The offensive explosion came after the Sooners worked UNC starting pitcher Aidan Haugh up to 102 pitches across 3 2/3 innings — with the senior right-hander getting chased in the fourth inning after loading the bases. A misfielded ball by Gavin Gallaher led to Oklahoma getting a second run, pushing the score to 2-1. Haugh avoided being tagged with the loss, and finished with six strikeouts while giving up four hits.
The majority of Carolina’s offense came from Gallaher, who continued his torrid offensive stretch in the regionals by crushing a homer in the fourth and doubling in the fifth inning to drive in two runs to have Carolina briefly take the 3-2 lead before the sixth inning collapse. The sophomore third baseman also aided UNC’s comeback attempt in the seventh inning — doubling again to left-center to score Kane Kepley after Luke Stevenson collected an RBI from a fielder’s choice that scored Carter French and closed the score to 7-5. Gallaher finished 3-for-5, and moved to 9-for-12 within the regional round.
But, as they did all evening, Oklahoma responded. Star catcher Easton Carmichael singled to right in the bottom of the seventh with the bases loaded to get another run back and push the lead to 8-5. Carolina’s best opportunity to make a comeback came in the next frame, as the Diamond Heels loaded the bases with no outs — but a Carter French strike out, a Kane Kepley fly-out to left and a Jackson Van De Brake fly-out to right left all the runners stranded.
The result sets up a winner-takes-all regional final on Monday night in Chapel Hill, with Carolina facing Oklahoma for the third time in three days. As of Sunday night, the game time had not been announced.
Featured image via UNC Athletics Communications/Carolina Baseball on X.
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