OMAHA, Neb. -- North Carolina's dinks trumped LSU's dingers.
The Tar Heels did nothing fancy offensively to beat the Tigers 8-4 in the College World Series on Sunday night. They didn't need to because Alex White kept LSU's potent attack mostly under wraps.
After Michael Hollander and Matt Clark hit home runs leading off the first and second innings, White allowed only two more singles before leaving in the eighth inning.
North Carolina (52-12), the national runner-up the past two years, advanced to a Tuesday night game against upstart Fresno State, which stunned Rice 17-5 in the afternoon. The Tigers (48-18-1), beaten for only the second time in 27 games since April 22, will play Rice in a Bracket 2 elimination game Tuesday.
All but two of Carolina's 17 hits were singles. Kyle Seager, Seth Williams and Ryan Graepel had three hits apiece. The Tar Heels scored in a variety of ways -- a wild pitch, a walk, a groundout, a sacrifice fly, a misplayed ball that went for a double and, of course, a couple of base hits.
"We kind of singled them to death there," Carolina coach Mike Fox said.
White (11-3), who has worked at least seven innings in four consecutive starts, left after Hollander reached on a bunt single to open the eighth. That's when LSU threatened to come back, loading the bases against reliever Brian Moran.
|
|
| Tim Fedroff's Tar Heels hurdle their first challenge in Omaha, the LSU Tigers. (AP) |
After Micah Gibbs singled to pull the Tigers within five runs, the bases remained loaded. But Clark, who hit his nation-leading 27th home run in the second, struck out after Moran threw him a 66-mph changeup and 69-mph breaking ball.
Carolina then caught a big break to complete an inning-ending double play on Leon Landry's chopper up the middle. Graepel, the Tar Heels shortstop, picked up the ball as he swiped second base with his foot, and made a relay throw to stretching first baseman Dustin Ackley.
Landry appeared to beat the play, waving his arms as he crossed first base as if to signal safe, but umpire Jack Cox called him out. Television replays indicated Landry was safe by a step.
LSU coach Paul Mainieri argued to no avail, telling Cox, "It wasn't even close."
"It was a tough call that went against us," Mainieri said after the game. "It was pretty obvious to me he was safe. Obviously, it was a big play. It would have made the score 8-5. Who knows what would have happened? But it was a tremendous momentum-breaker for us at that point."
