The North Carolina Tar Heels and the Oklahoma Sooners are all set to face off in the College World Series Finals to determine this year’s NCAA champions. Game 1 is set to commence on Saturday at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, NB.
The game was initially scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., but it has been moved up to 2 p.m. due to inclement weather in the forecast. The news hasn’t been well-received by supporters making the journey to watch their team play in the championship series. Some also questioned the news, claiming multiple online ticketing websites did not reflect the change in start time.
The Tar Heels registered a 12-7 win over the West Virginia Mountaineers to advance to the third championship series in the program’s history. They fell to Oregon State in 2006 and 2007.
The Sooners are in their fourth CWS final, having previously won the championship in 1951 and 1994 and fallen to Ole Miss in two games in 2022.
North Carolina and Oklahoma Head Coaches Discuss the CWS Championship Series
Sooners head coach Skip Johnson sees some similarities between the two programs. During a press conference on Friday, he echoed Trey Gambill’s comments, crediting SEC games for the roster’s CWS preparations.
“just trying to get everybody to buy into your culture. That’s the similarities I see in Scott [Forbes] and our program. You see it and you see the players when they regurgitate what our culture’s about. We’ve been through a lot. I think Trey said it best yesterday, we’ve been hit in the mouth. Played really good early in our year, and then we went through the SEC, and I think the SEC really molded us to be prepared to (be) where we’re at,” Johnson said.
Meanwhile, Tar Heels coach Scott Forbes understands the task at hand after the program lost back-to-back championships in ’06 and ’07. Forbes asserted that his team had to go for it and live in the moment.
“You’ve got to go after every single pitch and not think about the end goal, just think about that current game and the Nick Saban process of just trying to dominate every play and every pitch,” Forbes told reporters.
Game 2 will take place on Sunday, and, if necessary, the final game of the series will take place on Monday in Omaha, NB.
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