OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Deiten Lachance homered twice off North Carolina ace Jason DeCaro, Oklahoma shut down the Tar Heels after the first inning and the Sooners won Game 1 of the College World Series finals 9-3 on Saturday to move within a victory of the national championship.
The Sooners (42-22) used a four-run fourth inning to pull away for their ninth straight win and Cord Rager and two relievers allowed only two runners to reach second base after
the Tar Heels (53-12-1) struck for three early runs.
Oklahoma won national titles in baseball in 1951 and 1994 and will go for its third on Sunday. North Carolina, looking for its first, will try to force a deciding Game 3 on Monday.
OU ended DeCaro's uncharacteristic bad day in the fourth inning. The Sooners scored all four runs that inning with two outs starting when Kyle Branch broke a 3-all tie with a two-run single. Branch came home on Jason Walk's base hit and Camden Johnson singled off Walker McDuffie to make it 7-3.
DeCaro (11-3), who came in with a 2.31 ERA, was charged with all seven runs after having not allowed more than three in any of his previous starts.
Lachance homered for a 2-0 lead in the first inning and again in the third to tie it at 3. The 6-foot-5, 231-pound Canadian known as “Big Maple” has hit all 18 of his homers in the last 32 games, including six in the last eight.
Oklahoma has hit 45 of its 93 home runs in the last 17 games. OU has connected 28 times in 11 NCAA Tournament games, and its 10 homers in four CWS games are the most by a team since the event moved to Charles Schwab Field in 2011.
Rager (7-3), who threw 15 2/3 shutout innings over his previous three outings, gave up three runs in the first inning before settling in. Gavin Jones took over to start the sixth and LJ Mercurius worked the last 1 2/3 innings.
Carolina's Carter French made the defensive play of the CWS in the third when Walk sent a drive to deep right. As French went back to make the play, his glove got lodged under the padding running across the top of the fence. His glove was a bit crumpled as the ball landed in it. He held onto it and displayed it to the umpire.
___
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
