For Oral Roberts, it was worth the wait. Making their first College World Series appearance since 1978, the Golden Eagles staged a dramatic rally, erasing a three-run deficit in the ninth inning to stun TCU.
Friday’s thriller in Omaha birthed an unlikely hero, with second baseman Blaze Brothers—batting from the No. 9 hole—etching his name in ORU lore with one spectacular swing.
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That would stake Oral Roberts to a 6-5 lead, though, in his excitement, ESPN announcer Karl Ravech misspoke, calling Brothers’ three-run blast a “walk-off” despite still having the bottom half of the inning to play. The gaffe was reminiscent of a similar blunder by Mike Breen, who, during the 2022 NBA Playoffs, mistakenly thought Jayson Tatum’s game-winner was waved off.
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To his credit, Ravech corrected his mistake almost immediately, minimizing the damage after an unfortunate slip of the tongue.
Oral Roberts would go on to win, moving the Golden Eagles one step closer to what would be their first national championship in program history. Of course, there’s still plenty of baseball left to be played with eight teams—Oral Roberts, TCU, Florida, Virginia, Stanford, Wake Forest, Tennessee and LSU—remaining as the CWS moves to its “double-elimination” stage.
About Jesse Pantuosco
Jesse Pantuosco joined Awful Announcing as a contributing writer in May 2023. He’s also written for Audacy and NBC Sports. A graduate of Syracuse’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with a master’s degree in creative writing from Fairfield University, Pantuosco has won three Fantasy Sports Writers Association Awards. He lives in West Hartford, Connecticut and never misses a Red Sox, Celtics or Patriots game.