Oklahoma baseball season comes to end in regional loss to East Carolina
By Chip Rouse
![Dakota Harris is greeted after a score as the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) play the Oklahoma State Cowboys (OSU) in Bedlam baseball on May 19, 2023 at L Dale Mitchell Park in Norman, Okla. [Steve Sisney/For The Oklahoman]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2Fb39a315edc9be6c390c3844dd1f2be70cb2049c9de732f9e8b37cddf802321dc.jpg "Dakota Harris is greeted after a score as the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) play the Oklahoma State Cowboys (OSU) in Bedlam baseball on May 19, 2023 at L Dale Mitchell Park in Norman, Okla. [Steve Sisney/For The Oklahoman]")
East Carolina defeated the Oklahoma baseball team twice in the NCAA Charlottesville Regional. The second time eliminated the Sooners from postseason play and ended their season.
All of East Carolina’s scoring came in the third and fifth innings — three in the third and five in the fifth — and the eight runs scored in those two frames was enough to hold off the Sooners for an 8-5 victory and a spot in the regional championship game against No. 7 Virginia later on Sunday.
Oklahoma (32-28) opened up the scoring with a run in the first. The Pirates (48-17) erased the OU advantage, sending eight hitters to the plate and scoring three times on three hits. East Carolina effectively put the game away in the fifth inning, sending 11 hitters to the plate against OU starter James Hitt and reliever Carter Campbell and converting six hits and three walks into five runs, opening up an 8-1 lead after five and a half innings.
The Sooners’ chipped away at the deficit, plating a pair of runs on the bottom of the fifth on two hits and a balk, and adding single runs in the seventh and ninth, the latter coming on a solo home run by Bryce Madron leading off the ninth. Senior right-hander Carter Spivey, the last of five East Carolina pitchers in the game, recorded the final two outs, striking out Easton Carmichael and Diego Muniz of Oklahoma to end the game.
Outside of the third and fifth innings, East Carolina got just one hit and no runs off of Sooner pitching.
Madron and Dakota Harris both had a big day at the plate, collecting three hits apiece in four trips to the plate.
The Sooners outhit East Carolina 11 to 10 but also left 11 runners on base. Oklahoma had its opportunities in the game but couldn’t get the big hit or catch enough breaks to overcome the Pirates, who will have to beat Virginia twice, on Sunday night and again on Monday, if necessary.
Sunday’s rematch between the Sooners and Pirates was much more competitive than the 14-5 defeat East Carolina handed Oklahoma in the opening round of the regional double-elimination tournament.
For Oklahoma, it’s wait until next season.