Chapel Hill, NC (Sports Network) – North Carolina scored three times in the bottom of the sixth inning to rally for a 5-4 victory over South Carolina in the third and deciding game of the Chapel Hill Super Regional on Thursday.<\/p>\n
North Carolina, the No. 1 overall seed in this year’s NCAA field, advanced to the College World Series for the first time since 2011, though the Tar Heels were taken to the limit by a gritty and proven South Carolina squad that claimed national championships in 2010 and 2011 and reached last year’s CWS final.<\/p>\n
The Tar Heels trailed 4-2 entering the bottom of the sixth when Landon Lassiter led off with a single against Adam Westmoreland (7-4) and Colin Moran followed with a triple down the right-field line to cut UNC’s deficit. Moran later scored the tying run when Gamecocks first baseman Kyle Martin committed a throwing error after taking a relay throw on Cody Stubbs flyout to center.<\/p>\n
North Carolina eventually loaded the bases on a hit batsman and a pair of walks before the Gamecocks’ Tyler Webb walked Parks Jordan to force in the go- ahead run.<\/p>\n
Trent Thornton, Chris McCue and Kent Emanuel then held South Carolina scoreless over the final three innings to secure the Tar Heels’ trip to Omaha. UNC will take on in-state rival North Carolina State Sunday at 3 p.m. (ET) in its CWS opener.<\/p>\n
Thornton (11-1) was credited with the win after working 4 2\/3 innings in relief of starter Benton Moss. The freshman allowed three runs, though only one was earned due to a pair of Tar Heel errors that allowed South Carolina to grab a 3-2 lead by scoring twice in the top of the fifth.<\/p>\n
Stubbs threw errantly after fielding a bunt at first base from Tanner English that put two on with none out in the fifth, with both runners later crossing the plate on a dropped fly ball by North Carolina center fielder Chaz Frank.<\/p>\n
South Carolina extended the margin to 4-2 in the top of the sixth on English’s two-out double that brought home Grayson Greiner.<\/p>\n
Game 3 had been initially scheduled to be held Monday, but was postponed by heavy rain.<\/p>\n
Oregon State, LSU, Mississippi State, Indiana, Louisville and UCLA had already punched their ticket to the CWS along with NC State by winning their respective Super Regionals.<\/p>\n
The 2013 College World Series will begin Saturday at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha. Oregon State, the No. 3 national seed, will face Mississippi State in the opener at 3 p.m. (ET), with Indiana and Louisville to square off afterward.<\/p>\n
LSU, seeded fourth nationally, will take on UCLA on Sunday following the conclusion of the North Carolina-NC State matchup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chapel Hill, NC (Sports Network) – North Carolina scored three times in the bottom of the sixth inning to rally for a 5-4 victory over South Carolina in the third and deciding game of the Chapel Hill Super Regional on Thursday. North Carolina, the No. 1 overall seed in this year’s NCAA field, advanced to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[244],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ncaa-baseball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}