Here is your Norman Regional Recap for Day 1 of action.
North Carolina 12 California 3
NORMAN, OKLA. — Junior Matt Harvey pitched six strong innings to lead North Carolina over California 12-2 Friday night in the second game of the Norman Regional at L. Dale Mitchell Park. UNC never trailed after a six-run first frame improving to 37-20 overall.
Harvey (8-3) notched nine strikeouts and allowed just two runs on four hits. The Mystic, Conn., native moves into ninth all-time in career strikeouts (263) and tenth all-time in career wins (22) in Tar Heel history. Freshman Michael Morin pitched 2.1 strong innings allowing just one run on four hits. Greg Holt closed out the game recording the final two outs.
Oklahoma 7 Oral Roberts 6
NORMAN, Okla. — For the fourth time in the last five wins, the No. 11 Sooners produced a comeback victory in the ninth inning or later with a 7-6 win in 10 innings on Friday in the Norman Regional opener over Oral Roberts. Chris Ellison delivered the decisive hit in the bottom of the 10th to bring home Cody Reine.
Two innings earlier, Reine smashed his sixth home run of the year off the light pole in right field to tie the game at six apiece.
"Great college baseball game," said OU Head Coach Sunny Golloway. "In 15 of these now, you realize what your student-athletes go through, and the pressure and how things amount this time a year. Everybody wants to win so bad and, as coaches, we just get out of the way and don’t make more of it than they already know what it is, and just let them go play. I just saw some student-athletes that I was extremely proud of on both sides of the field. The game came down to a few key plays."
