OU Baseball: Oklahoma Knocked Out by ECU

The Sooners' season ended as East Carolina overpowered them for the second time in three days in the Charlottesville Regional.

John E. Hoover | Jun 4, 2023

OU Baseball: Oklahoma Knocked Out by ECU /

Oklahoma’s inconsistent season came to an abrupt end Sunday.

The Sooners got going early in their NCAA Tournament game at the Charlottesville Regional but couldn’t sustain it and eventually crumbled in an 8-5 loss to East Carolina at Disharoon Park in Charlottesville, VA.

It was 3-seed Oklahoma’s second loss to the No. 2-seed Pirates in three days. ECU thumped the Sooners 14-5 in Friday’s first-round matchup. OU rebounded Saturday with a 10-1 win over Army.

Oklahoma’s 2022 run to the College World Series final — after which a nation-leading 11 Sooners were drafted — may feel like a long time ago now, but while consistent baseball was a problem all season, this team’s talent showed as they finished 32-28 overall and made it three games into another postseason run.

Sunday’s outcome was about missed opportunities and lost momentum.

Oklahoma scratched a run across in the first inning, but it could have been so much more.

John Spikerman started things with a leadoff single but was thrown out stealing second. ECU pitcher Josh Grosz then walked three straight Sooners. The first of those, Kendall Pettis, came home on Anthony Mackenzie’s sacrifice fly to center field. Both Dakota Harris and Bryce Madron moved up on a wild pitch, but Easton Carmichael’s groundout to third ended a potentially big inning.

Left-hander James Hitt also started strong but couldn’t hang on. Hitt was in command through two innings, needing just 16 pitches to retire all six batters.

But the Pirates took control in the third inning against Hitt and the OU defense.

Hitt walked Joey Berini, who took second on a passed ball and went to third on Lane Hoover’s single to center. Hitt then stumbled trying to field Jacob Starling’s bunt single, and loaded the bases when he plunked Carter Cunningham.

Hitt induced the ground ball he needed from Josh Moylan to start a routine double play, but instead, Jackson Nicklaus’ throw from second was off target and Moylan was safe with a fielder’s choice RBI, scoring Hoover to make it 2-1.

Cam Clonch then delivered a two-out single to right to score Starling for a 3-1 lead.

The Sooners put two runners on with one out in the third inning, but ECU got out of trouble with an inning-ending double play. Then in the fourth, OU had a golden opportunity to do some real damage, but wasted it.

Easton Carmichael singled, Diego Muniz grounded a single to shortstop and Wallace Clark reached via error on a sacrifice bunt to load the bases with nobody out.

But OU couldn’t catch another break as Nicklaus smashed a line drive into Alec Makarewicz’s glove at first base, easily doubling off Clark. John Spikerman then grounded out to Makarewicz to end it and stranding two runners in scoring position.

ECU capitalized on that defensive momentum by batting around in the top of the fifth.

Hoover started things with a leadoff single up the middle, and Starling followed with a deep single to right. After Carson Campbell relieved Hitt, Cunningham brought home Hoover with a double into the left field corner for a 4-1 lead.

Moylan’s single to right scored Starling to make it 5-1 and moved Cunningham to third. Clonch’s sacrifice fly to deep left scored Cunningham for a 6-1 lead and advanced Moylan to second, and Moylan came home on Jacob Jenkins-Cowart’s double to right for a 7-1 lead.

Justin Wilcoxen’s double into the right field corner brought home another run to give the Pirates a commanding 8-1 lead that chased Campbell and brought in Carson Pierce.

In the bottom of the fifth, Pettis led off with a walk and took second on Madron’s infield single. Pettis scored on Dakota Harris’ single through the left side to cut it 8-2, and Madron came home on a balk to make it 8-3.

OU cut into the lead again in the seventh when Harris and Carmichael banged doubles into the right field corner — Carmichael drove home Harris with the second one — to cut the Pirates’ lead to 8-4.

The Sooners tried to rally one final time in the bottom of the ninth when Madron slammed a leadoff home run into the right field bullpen to make it 8-5. Mackenzie was hit by pitch by closer Carter Spivey, putting the tying run in the on-deck circle, but Carmichael struck out

Harris and Madron each finished 3-for-4 at the plate for the Sooners, while Carmichael had two hits.

Published Jun 4, 2023

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.