North Carolina pitchers Ryan Lynch and Caden Glauber held Oklahoma’s offense in check and the offense did enough to lift the Tar Heels to a 6-2 win in Game 2 of the Men’s College World Series Championship Series to even the series and force a decisive third game.
The teams will meet again Monday with North Carolina looking for their first title in program history while the Sooners are looking to win the program’s third championship.
Erik Paulsen Jr. had three hits and a run scored on the first Father’s Day since his father, a former NYPD detective who was a part of the 9/11 response at the World Trade Center, died of cancer.
The Sooners took the lead, scoring two in the bottom of the first inning to score first for the eighth consecutive game.
Oklahoma took the lead on a throwing error by catcher Colin Hynek on a double steal by Jason Walk and Camden Johnson, then Johnson came around to score on Jaxon Willits’ RBI double to right center.
After Xander Mercurius struck out the side in each of the first two innings, North Carolina finally broke through in the third against the freshman.
Jake Schaffner tied it with a triple into the right-field corner after Carter French drew a leadoff walk and Rom Kellis V singled to put the tying runs on base.
Schaffner scored on a wild pitch and then the Tar Heels loaded the bases with one out but Mercurius struck out back-to-back hitters to escape without further damage.
Owen Hull led off the fifth with a no-doubt home run to right to make it 4-2 and drive Mercurius from the game.
North Carolina added two more on Cooper Nicholson’s two-run homer in the seventh after Paulsen’s double.
After Willits’ first-inning double, Oklahoma had just two hits and didn’t have a runner reach second the rest of the way.
Lynch ultimately went four innings with one walk and five strikeouts before giving way to the freshman phenom Glauber.
Glauber’s dominance was on display from the start, as he struck out the side in the fifth.
He finished with eight strikeouts in five scoreless innings to close the game.
The Tar Heels are now 29-0 in games where Glauber pitches this season.
Trey Gambell’s two-out single in the sixth was the only hit the Sooners managed off Glauber.
Deiten LaChance, who homered twice in Saturday’s Game 1, made a bid for another home run in the eighth but French made a leaping catch at the wall to end the inning.
Glauber walked back-to-back hitters with one out in the ninth before getting Dasan Harris to ground into a double play to end the game.
Oklahoma used seven pitchers in the loss.
–Field Level Media
