Tar Heels’ closer Andrew Carignan gets the Owls to go quietly in the ninth.  With the win, UNC-CH (57-14) advances to face Oregon State in a rematch of last year’s title series.  The best-of-three series begins on Saturday.

Rice concludes its an excellent season with a record of 56-14.

The Owls pushed across two runs and had runners on second and third with two outs.  The Heels took out starter Adam Warren after he issued a leadoff walk to Jared Gayhart.  Rob Wooten allowed a run on three hits and was lifted in favor of closer Andrew Carignan.  Carignan got Joe Savery looking to end the inning on a horrendous third strike call that was more than a half a foot off the plate.  It was so bad that the ESPN commentators have talked about it for nearly the entire bottom half of the inning.

Kyle Seager’s two-run single to center increased the Tar Heels’ margin to five at 7-2.

Adam Warren continued to shut down the Owl bats in the sixth, as he allowed only one baserunner and that was via a hit batter.  Rice’s last hit was Aaron Luna’s leadoff single in the fourth.

Adam Warren sat the Owls down 1-2-3 in the top of the inning and has now recorded five consecutive outs.

Josh Horton led off the bottom of the inning with UNC’s fourth home run of the game–this one a blast to the right center field gap.

 

Rice reliever Bobby Bramhall’s first pitch was crushed over the left field fence by North Carolina’s Seth Williams.  The Tar Heels’ third home run of the game increased their lead to 4-2.

After Reid Fronk drew a leadoff walk, Tim Fedroff took Matt Langwell’s high fastball the other way and over the left field fence to give UNC a 3-2 lead.

Diego Seastrunk delivered a two-run single to right field in the top of the third, giving Rice a 2-1 lead.  Warren escaped further damage by getting Joe Savery to fly out to left field, stranding runners on first and second.

Dustin Ackley, who broke out of a slump yesterday with his 2-of-5 performance, sent a Matt Langwell fastball well over the 400 foot fence in center to give the Tar Heels an early 1-0 advantage thru 2 innings of play.

Meanwhile, Warren has sat down the first six Rice batters that he has faced in order.

North Carolina’s Adam Warren retired Rice 1-2-3 in the first inning and was the beneficiary of two web gems by first baseman Dustin Ackley and shortstop Josh Horton.

RESOLVE.  Rice and North Carolina have shown it all season.  Don’t expect to see anything less tonight, as the Owls and Tar Heels face off in an elimination game that will determine who will meet 2006 CWS champion Oregon State in this weekend’s title series.

Rice (56-13) finds itself in an unusual position after its 6-1 loss to North Carolina on Wednesday afternoon.  The loss was the Owls’ first in their last ten games and only their third in the last 40.  Wayne Graham’s club has not lost consecutive games since the end of March and it has only done so three times all season.  Following their 12 defeats, the Owls have responded by scoring an average of 9.4 runs per contest.

Last season, the Owls were in an eerily similar position, but they plan on producing a different result this time around.  After winning its first two CWS games a year ago, Rice was shut out on consecutive nights by eventual national champion Oregon State.   

UNC (56-14) forced this decisive match-up by winning back to back elimination contests against Louisville and Rice.  The Tar Heels received tremendous starts by Luke Putkonen and Robert Woodard in those games.  Thus, they were able to shut down the hot bats of the Cardinals and Owls.

The Owls, who had scored 29 runs in two games–including 14 in their ten run victory over the Tar Heels, were kept off balance all day by UNC’s Woodard.  Woodard, who only throws in the mid-80’s, relies heavily on his deceptive motion, location and the changing of speeds to make him effective.  Contrary to his outing versus Mississippi State, the Heels’ hurler had his pinpoint command and limited the Owls to only five hits.

Offensively, North Carolina got the clutch hits when it needed them and took advantage of Rice’s uncharacteristic miscues.  The Owls issued seven free passes (three walks and four hit batters) and committed two costly errors in the second inning that led to a 3-0 advantage for the Tar Heels.

The game also saw the return of the Tar Heels’ biggest bat.  National freshman of the year Dustin Ackley, who was only 5-of-35 in the NCAA tournament entering the game, went 2-of-5 and hit a three-run homer in the seventh that put his team in control at 6-0.  The Heels’ first baseman altered his stride prior to the game and it made immediate results.

Rice must regain its patient approach at the plate that produced 29 runs and 33 hits in the its two victories. 

The Owls will likely face the Tar Heels’ Adam Warren.  Warren, who worked 4 1/3 outstanding innings of relief in UNC’s 8-5 comeback victory over Mississippi State, is a perfect 11-0 on the season as the Tar Heels’ mid-week starter and has an ERA of 1.95.

Meanwhile, Rice is likely to counter with junior righty Matt Langwell.  Langwell, who has split time between the bullpen and starting roles, has compiled an 8-1 record and 2.11 ERA in 81 innings of work.  However, he did get roughed up by Louisville in the CWS opener.  The Cards plated four earned runs on five hits in only 1 2/3 innings off Langwell. 

Both teams bullpens are in adequate shape, but Rice’s is the fresher of the two.  The Owls’ stud lefties Bobby Bramhall and Cole St Clair did not appear in yesterday’s game.  Conversely, the Tar Heels used two of their top three options out of the pen in Rob Wooten and Andrew Carignan.  Matt Danford has not seen action since Sunday night’s loss to Rice and starter Alex White is also available if Mike Fox should need to call on his tall righty.

As legendary coach Wayne Graham said after yesterday’s loss, “Neither team has more pressure on it.”  Both teams possess a wealth of experience and the desire to win a national title, thus this game will simply come down to who executes the best.

With Warren on the mound and Ackley’s bat apparently warming up, you have to like the Tar Heels’ chances.

Conversely, Rice hasn’t lost consecutive games in nearly three months.

Don’t expect an abundance of runs scored in this one, which is likely to be closely contested to the end.  Both teams are big-game tested and have demonstrated tremendous resiliency all season long.