CHAPEL HILL, NC — Oklahoma just ran out of pitching arms Monday.
Gavin Gallaher homered twice and drove in four runs, Jackson Van de Brake also homered, and Hunter Stokely added three RBIs to lead North Carolina to a 14-4 rout of the Sooners and the championship of the Chapel Hill Regional in the NCAA baseball tournament.
UNC (45-13), the No. 5 national seed, will host again in the super regional against Arizona (42-18), which won the Eugene Regional as the No. 2 seed there. The Sooners end their season at 38-22.
Gallaher finished the regional going 13-for-18 with three homers, three doubles and a triple, worth 10 RBIs. His two big flies gave him 17 on the season.
Like they did in their win over Oklahoma on Saturday night when they scored eight of their 11 runs with two outs, the Tar Heels struck with two outs in the first inning. And again, it was an error that opened the door.
OU second baseman Kyle Branch threw high to first after fielding Gallaher’s chopper up the middle. Luke Stevenson was already aboard via a walk. And Stokely, who had had a quiet regional to that point, delivered two runs when he lined a double to the wall in left center.
Alex Madera followed with a sharp single past short, and UNC quickly owned a 3-0 lead. Madera finished with three hits and two RBIs for the Tar Heels.
The Sooners got two of those back in the second inning on Drew Dickerson’s third homer of the regional – and fifth of the season – an opposite-field drive to right off freshman right-hander Ryan Lynch.
But UNC broke it open with a four-run rally in the third when OU coach Skip Johnson’s pitching strategy didn’t pan out.
Johnson went with left-handed reliever Gavyn Jones after Luke Stevenson and Gallaher opened the inning with singles off OU starter Reid Hensley.
Johnson had success using lefties against the Tar Heels in Sunday’s 9-5 win. With six lefty bats again in the UNC lineup, Johnson opted to do it again.
However, it didn’t pay off this time, as four left-handed batters reached base safely against Jones. He walked Stokely on four pitches to load the bases, and another lefty, Madera, beat out an infield single when OU first baseman Sam Christensen slipped after fielding the slow bouncer, allowing a run to score.
Tyson Bass bounced into a force play at third for the second out, but two more lefties, Sam Angelo and Carter French, produced RBI singles to run UNC’s lead to 7-2 and force Johnson to pull Jones in favor of the seldom-used junior Dylan Tate, who making only his second appearance of the season.
UNC added a run in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Stokely. Van De Brake hit a two-run homer, and Gallaher had a solo shot in the eighth off freshman Jackson Kircher. Gallaher added a three-run blast in the ninth of sophomore Beau Sampson.
Jason Walk hit a solo homer in the seventh, his ninth of the year, and Carmichael added an RBI single in the ninth, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
Lynch (5-1) worked five solid innings for UNC, and fellow freshman Walker McDuffie finished up for his seventh save.
