Will Oklahoma's win or UNC's loss carry more of an...
Key takeaways
- That airy feeling of being able to do no wrong, rubbing up against that awareness that your baseball fortunes are beginning to spiral out of your control.
- The last of those moments was perhaps the most telling.
- Oklahoma outfielder Dasan Harris drove a hard grounder.
Why this matters: a sports story that could shift standings, legacies, or fan conversations.
That airy feeling of being able to do no wrong, rubbing up against that awareness that your baseball fortunes are beginning to spiral out of your control.
The last of those moments was perhaps the most telling. The play itself was inconsequential. The story it told was not.
Top of the eighth. Oklahoma outfielder Dasan Harris drove a hard grounder. North Carolina's Gavin Gallaher, who just 48 hours earlier was named the best defensive second baseman in the nation, dove for the ball but the leather was an inch too short. As the ball rolled into the outfield for a base hit, Gallaher slammed his fist into the lip of grass. It was just the last in a series of Tar Heel defensive hiccups, including a three-way short outfield crash that left Gallaher flat on his back next to the baseball that landed on the turf untouched. As both plays took place, there was a visual contrast on clear display for the 24,707 at Charles Schwab Field. In their dugout, the Sooners were dancing, some sort of tight-circle arm-locked gyration. In their bullpen, their grey-and-crimson-wearing pitchers were conducting a routine of mound-climbing conga line of high fives.