One game left in this College Wolrd Series Championship Finals between Oklahoma and North Carolina. Game 3…winner take all.
Two programs who in recent years have experienced the feeling of being national runner-ups. No. 5 North Carolina was expected to be here. Unranked Oklahoma wasn’t expected to get out of Atlanta versus No. 2 Georgia Tech four weeks ago.
Oklahoma is clearly playing with house money at this point. This is a team which dropped its last four regular season series in the SEC. This is a team which lost 6-2 to LSU in SEC Tournament, and a team which closed out the regular season 32-21… and not ranked in the national polls. These Sooners were the 11th seeded team from the SEC.
These Tar Heels aren’t the Soviet hockey team from 1980, and yet, these Sooners coming into this NCAA Tournament were not even underdogs worth note of mentioning until they dropped No. 2 Georgia Tech twice to advance for their Super Regional wins over No. 15 Kansas. In those two games…it became apparent the Sooners were beginning to think this might be possible as they drubbed the Jayhawks by a score of 21-3 in those two games played in Lawrence.
Then fell No. 7 Alabama 9-0, then No. 3 Georgia 4-3, then No. 3 Georgia again 11-4 to get to the Finals opposite North Carolina. The No. 5 Tar Heels had a cupcake draw with No. 3 Georgia, No. 6 Texas, and No. 7 Alabama on the opposite side of the bracket.
OU drubbed the Tar Heels 11-4 in the first game of these Finals, while North Carolina dropped the Sooners 6-2 on Saturday in the first sloppily played game by the Sooners since the end of the SEC regular season.
OU tonight will start its third straight freshman on the mound in these Finals. Yes…this would be a ‘Miracle’ if the Sooners win this championship, but here’s the thing…in these last 3-4 weeks the Sooners have been the best team in the country.
So not long from now…I’ll be settling in to see how this ends in Omaha, and just in awe minus the two bad innings on Saturday from what I’ve witnessed from Skip Johnson’s gritty Sooners who have made this a magical run for Sooner Nation.
My favorite scene from Miracle. Let’s go boys, nothing to fear. Nobody expected you to be here. You collectively earned this opportunity. Let it fly.
May the best team win tonight in Omaha.
Mike J