OU baseball falls to North Carolina as Tar Heels send Sooners to NCAA elimination game
Oklahoma's Kyle Branch (6) throws to first base during the college baseball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the LSU Tigers at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman, Okla., Thursday, April, 3, 2025.
CHAPEL HILL, NC — OU baseball coach Skip Johnson said his Sooners put themselves in too big a hole Saturday night.
“When you don’t play catch in the first inning, and you give a team like that the momentum of the game, that’s the difference,” he said. “They had the momentum of the game.”
Seldom-used designated hitter Sam Angelo hit two home runs, and No. 5 national seed North Carolina jumped on OU ace Kyson Witherspoon for six first-inning runs as the host Tar Heels advanced to the championship game of the NCAA baseball regional with an 11-5 victory Saturday night.
The Sooners (36-21) will play Nebraska (33-28) in an elimination game Sunday at 11 a.m. CT. The Huskers stayed alive with a 4-1 win over Holy Cross in an elimination game earlier Saturday. Cayden Brumbaugh and Hogan Helligso homered for the Huskers, and right-hander Ty Horn allowed only one run in 7.1 innings.
The winner of Sunday’s early game between OU and Nebraska will advance to the championship game at 5 p.m. Sunday (CT). If UNC loses Sunday night, those two teams would play again Monday for the regional title (gametime TBD).
In OU’s win Friday night against Nebraska, Malachi Witherspoon pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning for OU and went on to throw six shutout innings.
His twin brother Kyson, one of the top pitchers in the nation and a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award as national player of the year, couldn’t match that Houdini act.
“I would want to pitch that guy in that game every day,” Johnson said in defense of Witherspoon (10-4).
The Tar Heels (44-12) sent nine batters to the plate against him in their big inning, delighting the partisan crowd of 4,029 in Boshamer Stadium who waited through a 90-minute rain delay for the game to begin.
Technically the runs were all unearned, as the scoring came with two outs after an error by OU third baseman Dawson Willis started the inning. But that was small consolation for the Sooners.
After Willis’ error, the Sooners nearly turned a double play on a slow bouncer by the next batter, Jackson Van De Brake, but shortstop Jaxon Willits’ throw to first was off line. Still, Witherspoon retired UNC’s home run leader, Luke Stevenson, on a flyout and appeared to have things under control.
But the next four batters singled, producing three runs. Gavin Gallaher and Hunter Stokely singled sharply to right, and Alex Madera and Tyson Bass bounced RBI singles up the middle.
Johnson reiterated that it was a failure to play catch in the first inning that hurt the Sooners.
“The first soft line drive hit to Dawson, panic set in, and all of a sudden you had to make some pitches,” he added. “And then we get a double play ball, and we throw it away. I mean, you want those balls hit to those young men on the left side of our infield all day long.
“(Witherspoon) is trying to pitch out of it, and he’s attacking the strike zone, and those guys are hitting balls hard. And that’s what happens in games like that. It’s like a super regional game, and when you’re in those deals and you walk a guy or make an error, you give the momentum away. That’s when they talk about hitting gets contagious. That’s when the game gets really spiritual for the other team.”
After the four singles, Angelo applied the crusher, slicing an opposite-field three-run homer to left to give the Tar Heels a whopping 6-0 lead. It was the most runs UNC has scored in the first inning all season.
“That was a huge swing of the bat,” UNC coach Scott Forbes said of Angelo’s blast. “You know, we scored all those runs with two outs. I thought our guys were locked in all night.”
In fact, nine of the 11 runs scored by the Tar Heels came with two outs.
It would get worse for the Sooners.
Gallaher, who had four hits, drove in a run in the fourth with a single, and Bass hit a solo homer to left, his 10th, in the fifth.
Moments later, Angelo followed with his second of the night, 400 feet to straightaway center field, giving him four on the season and ending Witherspoon’s night. The nine runs, 10 hits and three homers surrendered by Witherspoon were all season worsts.
Angelo, a grad transfer from Division III Montclair State, had begun the season as the regular DH, but as his batting average dipped below .200, he saw less action. He has started both games in the regional but hadn’t started two in a row since early April.
But he felt ready to deal with Witherspoon’s 98 mph fastball.
“(Hitting coach Jesse) Wierzbicki gave me an idea,” Angelo said. “He said, ‘Just to see the ball a little better, why don’t you try widening out (your stance) and not striding?’
“And I saw that first pitch, and I felt pretty good about it. I didn’t miss that fastball.”
UNC right-hander Jason DeCaro (9-3) was the beneficiary of UNC’s offensive. He cruised through the first five innings before the Sooners got to him for two runs in the sixth. Pinch hitter Sam Christiansen doubled off the center field wall after singles by Easton Carmichael and Willits, and the second run scored on a groundout.
Madera added an RBI single in the sixth for UNC, and Carter French had one in the seventh.
DeCaro went 6+ innings, departing after a leadoff single in the seventh by Drew Dickerson, who eventually scored on a two-out single by Trey Gambill. DeCaro struck out a career-high eight, did not walk a batter and allowed seven hits.
Dasan Harris drove in a run for the Sooners in the eighth with his third hit of the night, and Willits tacked on an RBI single in the ninth.
OU baseball live score updates vs. North Carolina
OU-UNC baseball game in weather delay
For the second straight day, the Oklahoma Sooners will face a weather delay in the NCAA baseball tournament in the Chapel Hill Regional.
The Sooners' game against host North Carolina was set for a 5 p.m. CT start Saturday, but it will now start at 6:30 p.m. due to storms.
—Jeff Patterson, Sports editor
What time is OU baseball vs North Carolina?
- Date: Saturday, May 31
- Time: 5 p.m. CST
The Oklahoma vs North Carolina game starts at 5 p.m. CT Saturday from Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
What channel is Oklahoma vs North Carolina on today?
- Livestream: ESPN+ (here's how to stream it live)
The Oklahoma vs North Carolina game will be streamed on ESPN+.
Chapel Hill Regional schedule
All times are Central
Friday, May 30
- Game 1: No. 5 North Carolina 4, Holy Cross 0
- Game 2: Oklahoma 7, Nebraska 4
Saturday, May 31
- Game 3: Holy Cross vs. Nebraska, 11 a.m. (ESPN+)
- Game 4: No. 5 North Carolina vs. Oklahoma, 5 p.m. (ESPN+)
Sunday, June 1
- Game 5: Game 4 loser vs. Game 3 winner, 11 a.m. (TBD)
- Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 5 p.m. (TBD)
Monday, June 2 (if necessary)
- Game 7: Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser, TBD (TBD)
OU baseball highlights vs North Carolina
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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU baseball falls to North Carolina as Tar Heels send Sooners to NCAA elimination game
