OU baseball season ends with second loss to East Carolina in NCAA Charlottesville Regional

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — It was the same song, different verse for the OU baseball team against East Carolina.

Two days after a nine-run loss in the NCAA Charlottesville Regional opener, the Sooners' season came to an end Sunday afternoon with an 8-5 loss to the Pirates in an elimination game at Disharoon Park.

The Pirates advanced to the regional final against host Virginia later Sunday, needing two win twice to reach the super regionals.

“Losing the last game of the year is always tough because you practice to win the last game of the year,” Oklahoma coach Skip Johnson said after the game.  “I really think our club battled all the way through and it showed a lot of character about what our culture is about.  I’m really proud of our team and with what we did this year and how far we’ve gotten.

“I’m proud of how we did it.  Losing the guys we lost and during the year one time, I think we had seven or eight guys that were hurt.  We played a grueling schedule.”

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It was Oklahoma who got on the scoreboard to start the game in the opening inning.  East Carolina pitcher Josh Grosz walked the bases loaded and Anthony Mackenzie delivered a sacrifice fly to right centerfield scoring Kendall Pettis and putting the Sooners ahead 1-0.  With an opportunity to jump ahead early by a large margin, Oklahoma wasn’t able to take advantage of the gratuitous situation any further.

After going down in order in the first two innings, the Pirates offense came alive in the third inning.  Joey Berini started the inning by drawing a walk from Sooners starter James Hitt and advanced into scoring position on a passed ball.  The junior shortstop scored moments later on a perfectly executed bunt by Jacob Starling to even the score at 1-1.

Hitt struck the next batter at the plate, loading the bases.  The next batter, Josh Moylan, hit a ground ball to shortstop forcing an out at second.  The junior beat the throw to first preventing a double play and allowing teammate Lane Hoover to score to give the Pirates the lead.  Cam Clonch added an RBI double before the end of the inning to widen the margin to 3-1 for the Pirates.

East Carolina offense broke the game open in the fifth with a six-hit, five-run outburst that saw eleven Pirates come to the plate.  Lane Hoover and Starling began the inning with back-to-back singles. Carter Cunningham, Jacob Jenkins-Cowart, and Justin Wilcoxen each delivered RBI doubles. Moylan added an RBI single and Carter Cunningham scored a runner on a sacrifice fly to give the Pirates an 8-1 advantage.

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“In the game of baseball, it can be a catch, strikeout, a good at-bat.  Anything that gets the momentum from our dugout to theirs,” Johnson said.  They kind of got the momentum with the safety squeeze…You’ve got to be able to stop that momentum on the mound and defensively.  We did not do that.”

Despite falling behind, the Sooners offense stayed in attack mode, advancing runners into scoring position in each of the third, fourth, and fifth innings.

Oklahoma failed to take advantage in the third inning leaving two runners on base before quickly finding themselves with another opportunity to score in the fourth.  Again, the team failed to take advantage, this time with a bases-loaded, no-out situation. Jackson Nicklaus delivered a line drive to Moylan, East Carolina first baseman, who snared the ball out of the air and doubled up Wallace Clark at the bag.  Next, John Spikerman hit a grounder to first that Moylan gobbled up and tagged first base to end the Sooners threat.

Pettis reached base on a walk to begin the fifth and a Madron single put runners on first and second for Oklahoma.  Dakota Harris plated Pettis with an RBI single to leftfield.  Mackenzie followed by moving a runner to third base with a sacrifice fly.  A balk by East Carolina pitcher Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman allowed Madron to score cutting the deficit to 8-3 for the Sooners.

“You can’t expect those guys every time with bases loaded one or however many outs to get a hit every time,” Johnson stated.  “But you can have a quality at-bat.  You’ve got to reward yourself on quality at-bats or on seeing the ball well.”

Oklahoma added another run in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI Double by Easton Carmichael and Madron hit a solo homerun in the ninth inning to set the final margin.  Madron finished 3 for 4 and scored two runs in addition to the bomb.  A strikeout by Diego Muniz ended the contest for the Sooners and allowed East Carolina to advance.  In total, Oklahoma left eleven runners on base in the game.

The Sooners finish the season with a 32-28 overall record and will return the majority of their roster making the possibility of a postseason run in 2024 very realistic.

“We’ll go back, regroup.  We got a lot of nucleus guys, we’ve got a lot of young guys coming in,” Johnson said regarding the team’s next steps.  “Try to put the pieces together, get some more depth, and continue to grow in our culture.”

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU baseball season ends in loss vs East Carolina in NCAA Regional