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Oral Roberts players eat gummy worms in Super Regional matchup vs. Oregon

Wade-Peeryby:Wade Peery06/09/23
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(Photo by Kevin Langley/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

You simply never know what you’re going to get when you watch sports. A variety of things can happen in a given game. The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles are facing off against the Oregon Ducks in the Eugene Super Regional on Friday night.

The Ducks have mounted a comeback, rallying from eight behind. Oral Roberts’ players seem to have one of the stranger routines of any team in the 2023 NCAA Baseball Tournament.

Their players were seen devouring gummy worms on the field on Friday. One of their players was even fed some gummy worms as he went up to bat.

Check out the video below.

Oral Roberts had the longest active winning streak of any team in college baseball at 21 games, so maybe the gummy worms were a key part to their success. The Golden Eagles were ahead by eight in the third inning of Friday’s matchup, but the Ducks rallied to complete a historic comeback. They finished it off with a walk-off RBI by Drew Cowley in the bottom of the ninth to win 9-8.

Before Friday’s night contest, teams were 0-96 when trailing an opponent by eight or more runs in a Super Regional, per ESPN Stats and Info. The win also snapped Oral Roberts’ 21-game winning streak. It was the longest active winning streak in college baseball, until Friday night’s loss. Oregon currently has 10 consecutive wins–tying the nation’s longest winning streak.

Oral Roberts first ran up the score in the third inning. Oregon rotated through three freshman pitchers in the ending to no success.

When the dust settled, Oral Roberts held a commanding 8-0 lead. The Ducks fought back with two back-to-back home runs to open up the bottom of the third inning, but that was just a start.

In the fourth inning, the Ducks kept up the pressure with a Bennett Thompson three-run bomb to left field, cutting the Oral Roberts lead to 8-5. Not to be outdone, Drew Smith followed up Thompson’s home run with a dinger to left field. They were two runs away from history.

Another Oregon run was tacked on in the 7th inning to make the score 8-7. Another Oregon run was tacked on in the 8th inning to make the score 8-8. With each score, Ducks fans got louder and louder. The game had the second-most attendance for a game ever at PK Park. Eventually, all of the Golden Eagles’ bending finally led to a break when Drew Cowley brought it home for the Ducks.

The Golden Eagles won’t have to wait long to get revenge on the Ducks. The two teams face off in Game 2 of the Super Regionals at 6 p.m. PT on Saturday.

On3’s Grant Grubbs also contributed to this article.