Tar Heels’ season ends at OU

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

Just as the Tar Heel offense had struggled against the Sooner bullpen on Saturday in game four of the regional round, UNC suffered a similar fate 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 maintain 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 tied 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 10th quickly changed the momentum of the game and gave the Sooners the one-run lead. UNC couldn’t produce in the 10th and lost the game 3-2.

Facing elimination, the Tar Heels played Oral Roberts early Sunday.

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 gave UNC the lead once more, sealing the 12-4 victory for the Tar Heels.

The stage was set for Sunday night’s matchup, as UNC had to defeat Oklahoma twice if they hoped to avoid elimination and progress to the Super Regional round of the tournament.

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 held the lead in 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 regained the lead in the seventh and held on for the remaining innings.

For the second time in the same weekend, North Carolina would fall to Oklahoma by one run, 3-2.

The Tar Heels ended their season with an overall record of 38-22.

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.