Oklahoma has serious work to do if it wants to salvage its season. The Sooners suffered an embarrassing 14-5 defeat at the hands of East Carolina — the No. 2 seed in the Charlottesville Regional.
LHP Braden Carmichael (7-1) was not his usual self, issuing five free passes and throwing 81 pitches, and taking the loss. The southpaw had been a constant in an Oklahoma pitching staff but failed to command the strike zone against the dangerous ECU lineup. Carmichael went 2.2 innings allowing three earned runs before Skip Johnson turned to LHP Carter Campbell out of the bullpen.
Johnson emptied out the bullpen with the outcome of the game all but decided early on starting with Campbell to close out the third inning. Oklahoma used five relievers — all of which failed to keep East Carolina off the scoreboard as the Pirates scored in every inning except the first inning.
East Carolina (46-17) started its ace pitcher RHP Trey Yesavage (7-1) and Oklahoma struggled to mount much offense against him. Yesavage is considered to be one of the most elite pitchers in college baseball and was dominant again against the Sooners. Yesavage allowed one earned run on four hits in 5.1 innings of action before the Pirates turned to the bullpen.
Oklahoma (31-27) finally got on the board with a run in the sixth inning to counter 10 unanswered runs by East Carolina. Easton Carmichael singled through the left side to score Bryce Madron from second. Madron reached on an error earlier in the inning.
The Sooners tacked on two more runs in the seventh inning off of three hits. Diego Muniz singled to lead off the inning followed by a double into the right field corner by John Spikerman. Kendall Pettis hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Muniz before Spikerman scored on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to 11-3.
Oklahoma never quit and mounted a mini two-out rally despite facing a large deficit in the ninth inning. Pettis drew a walk and came around to score on an RBI single up the middle by Bryce Madron. Madron then stole second before Dakota Harris singled through the left side to cut the deficit to its 14-5 final tally.
The Sooners will be back in action Saturday morning at 11:00 AM against Army with its season on the line. Army suffered a 15-1 defeat on Friday at the hands of Virginia — the No. 7 overall seed and host of the Charlottesville Regional.
