By R.L. Bynum

CHAPEL HILL — Gavin Gallaher did everything he could to give top-ranked North Carolina the Chapel Hill Regional title on Sunday, but it wasn’t enough.

He went 3 for 5 with a homer and drove in four of the Tar Heels’ five runs. But UNC pitchers walked too many batters (8) and squandered too many chances in Oklahoma’s 9–5 victory Sunday in the Chapel Hill Regional before a loud crowd at Boshamer Stadium.

“They had traffic the whole night,” UNC coach Scott Forbes said. “We didn’t make our normal plays defensively. If you don’t pitch at a high level and defend at a high level, it’s hard to win those games against a really good team.”

UNC (44–13) and Oklahoma (37–21) will play a winner-take-all game at 3:06 p.m. Monday (ESPNU) with the Tar Heels as the visiting team, with freshman right-hander Ryan Lynch the likely Carolina starter.

“It just wasn’t our night,” said Forbes, saying that “most likely” Lynch will start. “We’re going to flush it quickly, because we’re going to play again [Monday] and we’re excited about it.”

Forbes saved his best bullpen arms — Lynch and fellow freshman right-hander Walker McDuffie — for Monday’s game.

“I had made up my mind as a head coach, that unless we had the lead from seventh to ninth, I wasn’t going to put Ryan Lynch or Walker McDuffie in,” Forbes said. “Obviously, if we were in the elimination game, that would be completely different.”

Bosh magic seemed possible in the eighth inning when UNC loaded the bases with nobody out and trailing by three. But Oklahoma closer Dylan Crooks, whose walk loaded the bases, got a strikeout and two fly outs to escape with no damage, then retired the Heels in order in the ninth inning.

Gallaher is 9 of 12 with six RBI this weekend and is 14 of 29 with three home runs in the Chapel Hill Regional over the last two seasons. He said the experience of winning a winner-take-all game last season will help the Tar Heels.

“Very helpful. Very similar situation,” Gallaher said. “Tonight was hard; tomorrow’s probably gonna be even harder. You’ve got to show up. You’ve got to bring it and play like we’ve got our backs against the wall.”

UNC starter Aidan Haugh (3⅔ innings, 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned, 4 walks, 6 strikeouts) worked around a leadoff double in the first inning with two strikeouts swinging and a groundout. Haugh issued a two-out second-inning walk but struck out a red-hot Drew Dickerson looking at an 80-mph off-speed pitch.

The first two innings set the tone for Haugh’s outing as he frequently got behind in counts and threw a lot of pitches.

“As bad as we thought we pitched it, they only had four earned runs,” Forbes said. “So, you’ve got to make big plays. And our guys have made those big plays all year, and they’ll make them tomorrow.”

The teams traded leadoff home runs in successive half-innings. Nine-hole Oklahoma hitter Dawson Willis lofted a hanging Haugh breaking ball just over the left-field wall for his sixth home run of the season in the bottom of the third inning. Gallaher powered a pitch from Oklahoma starter Jaden Barfield (4 innings, 2 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts) 397 feet over the wall in center field in the top of the fourth inning.

On a ground ball that ended the fourth inning, Oklahoma’s Jaxson Willits, running from first base, waved his hand near where the ball was going, trying to distract UNC second baseman Jackson Van De Brake (being held back in the below photo). Van De Brake, after fielding it and ending the inning, had some words with Willits.

“I wasn’t trying to be a dirty player,” Willits said. “I’ve never been a dirty player. But I was just trying to help my team get a run; [that] was all I was doing. And he took exception to that, and basically he came at me, and I went back at him. But there was nothing personal. We’re just competing on the baseball field.”

Gallaher turned to Willits, the Sooners’ shortstop, and smiled as he was rounding the bases after hitting his home run. The crowd booed Willits afterward when he came to bat. The fans loved it when Willits was thrown out trying to steal second base in the fifth inning, but he finished 2 for 4 with two RBI.

Gallaher, UNC’s third baseman, couldn’t handle a tough chance on a bases-loaded, two-out grounder, and the error allowed Oklahoma’s Kyle Branch to score after a leadoff walk in the fourth inning.

That ended Haugh’s night at 102 pitches, bringing on left-hander Tom Chmielewski to face the left-handed-hitting Sam Christiansen. The first of three consecutive UNC relievers to go ⅔ of an inning, he elicited a groundout to leave the bases loaded.

Gallaher gave UNC its first lead of the game with a two-out double to the left-center field wall in the fifth inning after Kane Kepley singled and Luke Stevenson walked. That lasted until the Sooners took a 7–3 lead with five runs in the sixth inning, four with two outs.

Drew Dickerson hit a two-run homer to left-center field off Olin Johnson (2 hits, 2 runs). Folger Boaz (losing his glove on a hard come-backer in above photo) relieved Johnson and Willits hit a two-out, two-run double down the right-field line to give the Sooners a 6–3 lead. Camron Seagraves came on and gave up a Kyle Branch single to center field.

UNC notched two in the seventh inning on Luke Stevenson’s RBI groundout and Gallaher’s ringing RBI double to left-center field to trim its deficit to two, but Oklahoma scored a run in the bottom of that inning.

Cale Bolton, pitching for the first time since May 9, came on after Seagraves walked one batter and hit another. Easton Carmichael, who hit two home runs in Oklahoma’s 17–1 win Sunday afternoon over Nebraska, hit an RBI single. Bolton struck out two and got a groundout to leave the bases loaded.

Dasan Harris’ two-out solo home run off Bolton made it 9–5 lead.

NOTES — The Chapel Hill Regional winner will face No. 21-ranked Arizona (42–18), the champion of the Eugene Regional, in the Super Regionals after beating Cal Poly 14–0 Sunday night. UNC will host if it advances. … The start of the game was rain-delayed 30 minutes. … Kane Kepley made an outstanding running catch to end the Oklahoma fifth inning. … The 14⅓ innings pitched by UNC’s starters in the first two games of the regional — Jake Knapp on Friday and Jason DeCaro on Saturday — were the most in the first two games of a regional since Kent Emanuel and Patrick Johnson combined for 16 in the 2011 Chapel Hill Regional. … Sam Angelo was UNC’s starting DH for the third consecutive game. That’s the first time he’s started that many games in a row since starting nine in a row in a stretch that ended on April 1. He went 3 for 5 with two home runs in Carolina’s first two NCAA tournament games. … Roy and Wanda Williams were in their usual seats on the ninth row behind the UNC dugout. … This is the second consecutive season that UNC has been forced into a winner-take-all Monday game to decide the Chapel Hill Regional. Last season, LSU beat the Tar Heels 8–4 on Sunday night, but UNC beat the Tigers 4–3 in 10 innings on Monday night. … The game drew a standing-room-only crowd of 4,001.

Oklahoma 9, No. 1 UNC 5

Chapel Hill Regional

At Boshamer Stadium
Friday’s results
No. 1 North Carolina 4, Holy Cross 0
No. 2 Oklahoma 7, No. 3 Nebraska 4
Saturday’s results
Nebraska 4, Holy Cross 1; Holy Cross eliminated
North Carolina 11, Oklahoma 5
Sunday’s results
Oklahoma 17, Nebraska 1; Nebraska eliminated
Oklahoma 9, North Carolina 5
Monday’s game
North Carolina (44–13) vs. Oklahoma (38–21), 3:06 p.m., ESPNU
Winner advances to Super Regional against No. 21-ranked Arizona (42–18), which won the Eugene Regional on Sunday night with a 14–0 win over Cal Poly.

Date(s)	Day/ month	Time/ score	Opponent (current rank)	TV/ record
	February
14–15	Fri.-Sat.	W, 5–1; W, 8–3; W, 4–2	vs. Texas Tech	3–0
18	Tuesday	W, 12–9	vs. Kansas State	4–0
22–24	Sat.-Mon.	W, 2–0; W, 11–6; W, 6–4	vs. East Carolina (DBAP, CH, G’ville)	7–0
25	Tuesday	W, 7–4	vs. VCU	8–0
26	Wednesday	W, 13–4	vs. N.C. A&T	9–0
28	Friday	W, 16–2	vs. Stony Brook	10–0
	March
1–2	Sat.-Sun.	W, 6–1; W, 9–5	vs. Stony Brook	12–0
4	Tuesday	W, 6–4 (11)	vs. No. 11 Coastal Carolina	13–0
7–9	Fri.-Sun.	L, 13–9; W, 11–1 (7); L, 7–0	vs. Stanford	14–2, 1–2 ACC
11	Tuesday	W, 7–3 (10)	at UNCW	15–2
14, 16	Fri., Sun.	L, 8–7; W, 6–4; L, 5–0	at Louisville	16–4, 2–4
19	Wednesday	L, 5–1	vs. UConn	16–5
21–23	Fri.-Sun.	W, 5–1; L, 3–2; W, 10–0 (7)	at Boston College	18–6, 4–5
25	Tuesday	W, 13–8	vs. South Carolina in Charlotte	19–7
28–30	Fri.-Sun.	W, 2–0; W, 4–2; L, 4–2	vs. Miami	21–7, 6–6
	April
1	Tuesday	W, 11–1 (7)	vs. Gardner-Webb	22–7
3–5	Thur.-Sat.	W, 4–3; L, 9–5; W, 8–7 (14)	vs. Duke	24–8, 8–7
8	Tuesday	W, 12–10	at Elon	25–8
11–13	Fri.-Sun.	W, 11–1 (7); W, 17–1 (7); W, 3–2	vs. Wake Forest	28–8, 11–7
15	Tuesday	W, 14–4 (8)	vs. Charlotte	29–8
18–20	Fri-Sun.	W, 9–6; L, 10–6: W, 7–5	at Virginia Tech	31–9, 13–8
25–27	Fri.-Sun.	W, 15–5; L, 4–2; W, 6–0	at Pittsburgh	33–10, 15–9
29	Tuesday	W, 13–4	vs. George Mason	34–10
30	Wednesday	W, 14–3	vs. Queens	35–10
	May
6	Tuesday	W, 10–1	vs. Campbell	36–10
8–9	Thurs.-Fri.	W, 8–1; L, 8–5	vs. N.C. State	37–11, 16–10
15–17	Thurs.-Sat.	W, 8–3; W, 11–1 (7); L, 5–4	at No. 7 Florida State	39–12, 18–11
		ACC tournament	Durham
23	Friday	Quarterfinal: W, 7–3	Boston College	40–12
24	Saturday	Semifinal: W, 7–5	No. 7 Florida State	41–12
25	Sunday	Final: W, 14–4	No. 14 Clemson	42–12
		Chapel Hill Regional
30	Friday	W, 4–0	Holy Cross	43–12
31	Saturday	W, 11–5	Oklahoma	44–12
	June
1	Sunday	L, 9–5	Oklahoma	44–13
2	Monday	3:06 p.m.	Oklahoma	ESPNU
		Super Regional	Chapel Hill (if UNC advances)
6–8	Fri.–Sun.	TBD	Arizona or Cal Poly	TBD
18–30	Wed.–Mon.	College World Series	Omaha, Neb.