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CWS Changes Oklahoma-North Carolina Start Time

The Sooners and Tar Heels are due to play at least two times this weekend, and inclement weather has forced a major change to Saturday's first pitch.
John Hoover|
Oklahoma pitcher LJ Mercurius
Oklahoma pitcher LJ Mercurius | Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images

OMAHA, NE — Sooner Nation, Saturday is expected to be wet.

Wet enough, at least, that organizers of the College World Series have moved the start time of the opening game between Oklahoma and North Carolina up five hours.

Game 1 of the CWS Championship Series was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on ESPN, but now first pitch will go off at 2 p.m. The game will still be carried by ESPN.

The Sooners (40-22) are looking for their first national championship in baseball since 1994. The Tar Heels (53-12-1), who finished as runner-up in 2006 and 2007, have never won the CWS.

Sunday's Game 2 is set for 1:30 p.m. on ABC. If neither team sweeps the first two contests, then Game 3 is scheduled for 6 p.m. on ESPN.

Head coach Skip Johnson led OU here in 2022 and the Sooners made it to the championship series by going 3-0 in bracket play against Notre Dame and Texas A&M, but then lost two in a row to Ole Miss. The Sooners dominated Alabama and Georgia in this year's field by the score of 24-7. North Carolina has defeated Ole Miss and West Virginia by a 23-11 tally.

For OU fans who aren't now arriving too late, The Sooner Club is hosting a happy hour at DJ's Dugout in downtown Omaha near Charles Schwab Field after a formal send-off from the team hotel (Courtyard by Marriott).

Friday's weather in the Omaha area included a brief shower late morning. Saturday calls for a 49 percent chance of rain and a high of 80 degrees, while Sunday also could be sketchy: a 45 percent chance of precipitation and a high of 73 degrees. As of Friday afternoon, Monday's forecast includes a 20 percent chance of rain and a high of 76.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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