Deiten Lachance hit a pair of home runs as Oklahoma continued its offensive barrage with a 9-3 win over North Carolina in the opening game of the Men\u2019s College World Series championship series on Saturday in Omaha, Neb.<\/p>\n
The Sooners (42-22) will try to win the program\u2019s third national title and first since 1994 in Sunday\u2019s second game, while the Tar Heels (53-13-1) will look to force a decisive Game 3.<\/p>\n
Both teams entered with their aces on the mound in Oklahoma freshman left-hander Cord Rager and North Carolina All-American right-hander Jason DeCaro.<\/p>\n
But it was the offenses that set the tone early.<\/p>\n
The Sooners took a 2-0 lead in the first on Lachance\u2019s two-run home run to right-center on DeCaro\u2019s 2-0 offering.<\/p>\n
The first four Tar Heels hitters reached base in the bottom half of the inning off Rager, with Gavin Gallaher tying the game with a two-run single and Colin Hynek later giving North Carolina the lead with a sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n
But Rager (7-3) settled in from there, allowing just one more hit in five total innings of work.<\/p>\n
Lachance tied the game with a solo homer to left with two outs in the third.<\/p>\n
Lachance, who didn\u2019t hit his first home run of the season until April 9, has 18 home runs in the 32 games since.<\/p>\n
Oklahoma then manufactured four runs in the fourth, driving DeCaro (11-3) from the game.<\/p>\n
Kyle Branch broke the tie with a two-run single, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored on Jason Walk\u2019s single off shortstop Jake Schaffner\u2019s glove.<\/p>\n
After Walk stole second, Camden Johnson drove him in with a single to right-center.<\/p>\n
DeCaro hadn\u2019t allowed more than three earned runs in any appearance this season. He allowed seven on seven hits over 3 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n
Walk drove in another in the sixth to make it 8-3.<\/p>\n
In the top of the ninth, rain began falling at Charles Schwab Field. With inclement weather expected beginning in early evening, Saturday\u2019s game was moved up to the afternoon.<\/p>\n
As the rain fell, Oklahoma scored another on a double-play grounder.<\/p>\n
The rain continued through the remainder of the game but LJ Mercurius struck out Erik Paulsen to finish off the victory.<\/p>\n
Lachance finished 3-for-5 while Dasan Harris was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles.<\/p>\n
Schaffner had three of North Carolina\u2019s seven hits.<\/p>\n
The top four hitters in the Tar Heels\u2019 lineup were 6-for-18 while the bottom five were just 1-of-15.<\/p>\n
–Field Level Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Deiten Lachance hit a pair of home runs as Oklahoma continued its offensive barrage with a 9-3 win over North Carolina in the opening game of the Men\u2019s College World…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":478409,"template":"","news_cat":[4421,4388,4383,4396],"class_list":["post-478408","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news_cat-ncaa-bbl","news_cat-recap","news_cat-story","news_cat-top-story"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n