North Carolina used a five run third inning to defeat the Oregon State Beavers 8-6 in the opening game of the 2018 College World Series. Shortstop Ike Freeman led the Tar Heels at the plate going 3-4 with two runs scored while teammate Zach Gahagen went 2-4 with two runs scored. Ben Casparius drove in three runs on two hits also. Oregon State starter Luke Heimlich was hit hard giving up four hits, six earned runs, and a walk on only 63 pitches.
North Carolina’s Gahagen credited the coaching staff with the approach at the plate saying
“Our coaches spend countless hours, put in work on film and watching guys, and they give us good feedback on what we should do in the box. Our approach is dealing with the fastball and just be ready for it. I think we did that well. And we got him out pretty early and that was the goal.”
UNC Head Coach Mike Fox talked about the offensive performance saying
“We have seemed to have hit our offensive stride here since the NCAA tournament began. And gotta give credit to our kids. They listened. And they’ve bought in. And they know it takes all of them to help us score those runs.
And it is a little bit contagious as well. So the box score is pretty typical of kind of what we’ve seen down toward the end of our season with just different guys having big games for us or stepping up.
It’s pretty amazing what Ben was able to do today, quite honestly, without seeing a lot of live pitching. Great credit to him.
So our guys are looking at the ball good, taking advantage of being in good counts. And it’s helping us.”
North Carolina will take on the winner of the Washington and Mississippi State game on Monday while Oregon State will take on the loser of that same game in an elimination game.
