Sooners' season ends with a thud as North Carolina explodes at the plate

The Oklahoma Sooners pushed North Carolina to the brink, but the Sooners were also on life support by then.

The Sooners lost to No. 5 national seed UNC 14-4 on Monday in Game 7 of the Chapel Hill Regional of the NCAA Baseball Championship to conclude their college baseball season while the Tar Heels advanced to Super Regionals against Arizona.

Oklahoma loses to UNC after pushing Chapel Hill Regional to Game 7

OU pushed things to an "if neccessary" game after beating UNC 9-5 on Sunday and Nebraska 17-1 earlier that same day. But after five games in four days, the Sooners finally ran out of arms to take out a top-5 squad.

Reid Hensley had to make just his second start of the season for the Sooners. He made it just 2 1/3 innings after immediately giving up three runs in the first frame with UNC as the visiting team at its own field. Hensley's defense didn't do him any favors, though, as he gave up five runs, but just two were earned.

Gavyn Jones relieved Hensley in the third in the midst of a tough four-run inning, but he got only one out after giving up two runs first to give UNC a commanding 7-2 early lead.

Dylan Tate ate up the most innings with four while giving up just one run on four hits and striking out five. Tate's day eventually ended in the seventh after 56 pitches and it took four more pitchers to finish things for OU as the Sooners used seven pitchers total in the game. Meanwhile, UNC needed just two pitchers.

The Sooners scored only via home run during the pitching struggles until the last out. Freshman Drew Dickerson hit a two-run bomb in the second for his third homer of the regional. Jason Walk then hit a solo shot in the seventh.

With one out left in the game, in what was likely his last college at-bat, Easton Carmichael dropped in a single to shallow center that scored Dickerson from second. The Tar Heels then ended things the next at-bat.

OU finished its first season in the SEC with a 14-16 conference record and 38-22 overall after starting the year on an 11-game winning streak. This was the third season in a row the Sooners were eliminated in regionals.

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