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Saturday night's regional baseball game against North Carolina turned into a marathon slug fest in which Oklahoma won 7-6 in 10 innings. The Tar Heels came on late, scoring 6 runs over the final four innings Saturday night to push the game into the extra inning but they wouldn't be able to match OU's run which put them on the brink of elimination. Showing the merit of a championship caliber team, North Carolina bounced back on Sunday to eliminate Oral Roberts and face Oklahoma once again. The game took a different turn but ended with the same result, a Sooner victory,
Though not as strong as North Carolina on Saturday night, it was the Sooners who came on Sunday evening to tie up the game and then take the lead for good in the top of the seventh. The Tar Heels took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when Seth Baldwin drove in Brian Goodwin with an RBI single to right field. Danny Black tied it in the bottom of the fourth when he laid down a bunt along the first base line to score Cameron Seitzer.
The two teams swapped runs in the sixth with Tyler Ogle scoring for the Sooners and Ryan Graepel hitting a homer to left field for the Tar Heels. Oklahoma broke the tie in the top of the seventh when Cody Reine knocked in Seitzer to give OU the lead for good at 3-2. That would also prove to be the final score, eliminating the Tar Heels and sending OU on to next weekend's super regional.
Bobby Shore recorded the win for Oklahoma after facing 29 batters over 7.1 innings, allowing just one run on four hits. Jeremy Erben faced the final six batters allowing no runs and just 1 hit to get the save for the Sooners.
Now OU has to play the waiting game as Monday's elimination game between Virginia and St. John's. Should the Cavilers win then Oklahoma would most likely travel to play play a best of three series against them. However, should St John's pull the upset then Oklahoma would be in position to host the super regional next weekend. Thus, we're all St. John's fans tomorrow!