Despite three runs in the bottom of the ninth, UNC wasn't able to pull off the upset against Oklahoma last night. Instead, a strikeout stranded a runner at third, and OU scored in the 10th to win the game 7-6. The Heels now have to beat Oral Roberts and then win two off of Oklahoma to advance out of the Norman Regional. 

Also of note is that freshman outfielder Brian Goodwin had his eighth triple of the season, breaking a Carolina record that has stood since 1949.

Despite missing the ACC Baseball Tournament by virtue of losing a tiebreaker with Boston College, the Tar Heels found themselves offered their ninth straight bid to the NCAA tournament this week. UNC's strong finish and high RPI swayed just about everyone to their cause, with the notable exception of Wolfpack coach Elliot Avent, who's a little bitter the Heels got a week off. Carolina touched down in Norman, Oklahoma yesterday, where they'll be a three seed in the regional. What are their chances for surviving and starting a trip to their fifth consecutive CWS?

Pretty decent, actually. The Heels have an RPI only three spots behind regional host Oklahoma, and well ahead of California and Oral Roberts. Carolina's first opponent, the Golden Bears, may be the weakest two-seed in the tournament, having been swept in three of their last five weekend series. Neither their pitching nor their batting has put up particularly strong numbers, a good sign when facing a UNC team that like last year, is stronger on the mound than on the plate. Oral Roberts is greatly diminished from the team that nearly pulled off an upset in Tempe last year, having lost a large chunk of their rotation and their closer. They look to be a non-factor.

And that leaves the favorite Oklahoma. Like Carolina, the Sooners started slow but have turned it on down the stretch, winning nine of their last eleven. They've done it with their bats, led by third baseman Garrett Buechele. Their pitching is tough, but beatable. They're the biggest impediment to Carolina surviving the weekend, they'll be playing on their home turf, and be extremely tough to beat. But the Heels have as a good a chance as they could hope for in Norman, and could quite conceivably pull out the victory.

The Heels play California Friday at 8 pm Eastern, with Matt harvey getting the start for Carolina.

This past weekend was a little rough for UNC athletics. The men's lacrosse team exited the NCAA's prematurely with a 17-9 loss to Duke, and the baseball team's sweep of Virginia Tech wasn't enough to get them into the eight-team ACC tournament. This means that barring an NCAA bid for the Heels in baseball – not unheard of, but not particularly likely, either – the women's lacrosse team are the last Heels standing, having made the semifinals of the NCAA tournament, being held Friday and Sunday in Towson, Md. They'll meet second seed Northwestern, and should they advance then play either top-ranked Maryland or unseeded Syracuse. The Heels have already dealt both the Terps and the Wildcats the only losses of their respective seasons, with the Northwestern victory coming in Evanston; either team would be happy to send UNC packing.

But what you're really dying to know is, how does that playoff loss to the Blue Devils impact the Carlyle Cup, that wonderful all-sport tally of games between Carolina and Duke that you occasionally remember once every couple of years? And the answer is, not at all. UNC has held the lead for most of the year despite some basketball results we'd all rather not think about, and sealed the the deal by blowing past Duke in the ACC track and field championships back in April. Depending on how quick the Carlyle Cup updates their website – and I'm going to go with "not very" here – UNC losing to Duke coughs back up a half a point from the total, giving us a final tally of Carolina 14, Duke 12. The Blue Devils haven't gotten their hands on this particular piece of hardware since the 2003-04 season.

So yay, I suppose. Doesn't really compensate for basketball, though.

Two bad innings were enough to sink it for Carolina, as they gave up a 4-0 lead on a Kole Calhoun grand slam in the fifth only to be shellacked for eight runs in a dismal seventh inning. It was ASU pitcher's Josh Spence second win against the Heels in Omaha, as he again pitched seven innings, while the Heels went through seven pitchers in the course of the game. UNC finishes the season 48-18; Virginia is the last ACC team  still in contention. 

The bats that failed the Heels in their opener against Arizona State came back with a vengance this afternoon, as UNC rattled off twenty-three hits en route to an 11-4 win. Pitcher J.R. Ballinger was put in a hole early after giving up five runs in two and two-thirds innings, including Dustin Ackley's 23rd, 24th and 25th hit in the College World Series. The 25th was a new CWS record; the team's overall twenty-three tied another record mark.

Adam Warren pitched for the Heels, going seven innings and giving up only three runs. UNC will next face the loser of tonight's Texas-ASU matchup Thursday at 6 pm.

Ben Bunting has a frustrating afternoon at the College World Series. Photo from Big 12 Hardball.

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Carolina's fourth consecutive trip to the College World Series didn't start as smoothly as the other three, with the Heels dropping their first game 5-2 against Arizona State. The game was primarily a pitching duel between Alex White and ASU's Josh Spence; White went nine innings giving up only one run and seven hits, while his opposite number went seven with one run and eight hits. It was under the Heels' closers in the tenth where things went off the rails, as the Sun Devils got four runs that UNC just could not make up.

The Heels face the loser of tonight's Texas-Southern Miss game on Tuesday at 2 pm in an elimination game.

UNC Baseball doesn't need any distractions going into the College World Series, so it's nice to know at least two players have solid postgraduate employment opportunities. With the second overall pick in the MLB draft tonight, the Seattle Mariners chose first baseman Dustin Ackley, followed soon by the Cleveland Indians selecting pitcher Alex White at 15th. Ackley and White are both juniors, making this their first year of eligibility in the draft.

Dustin Ackley had been the prohibitive favorite to go second in the draft for quite some time, behind San Diego State pitcher Stephen Strasburg. He was widely considered the best hitter in the draft (Quote GM Jack Zduriencik, "We think this kid was the best hitter in the Draft.") and has excelled in the postseason to date, including a 10-14 performance in two games against East Carolina. Mariners fans are understandably pleased.

From what I can gather, Indians fans were surprised Alex White was still on the board at fifteen, and are quite happy their team picked him up. White was initially drafted in the 14th round out of high school by the Los Angeles Dodgers, but elected to attend UNC instead, a decision that appears to have paid off handsomely.

While I spent the weekend walking around various parts of D.C., the Carolina baseball team was ripping through its NCAA regional in three straight games, earning a trip to, well, Chapel Hill, and a best of three series with East Carolina. Along the way, they brought misery to Jayhawks fans everywhere, so there's that at least.

Having just gotten used to North Carolina being a baseball powerhouse, I'm most certainly not prepared to consider East Carolina one as well. Happily, they're not yet at that stage. The Pirates needed a ninth-inning rally and an extra inning of play to squeak by South Carolina Monday night in Greenville. On the season they're 46-19, and winners of the Conference USA regular season title. The Tar Heels (45-16) and ECU have met twice this season, with Carolina taking the first game in Chapel Hill, and East Carolina returning the favor in Greenville. This weekend's games are already a sellout, which with overflow crowd should lead to attendance of over 5,000. The game in Greenville drew 5,581, so expect a fair number of Pirates fans in attendance.

So who wins the weekend? It's tough to say without seeing the pitching matchups, but UNC has more Super Regional experience and a better record against a tougher conference slate - of the six ACC teams to make the tournament four advanced, and as the fourth overall seed, UNC is, in the NCAA's view, the best of the bunch. With the home field advantage, the odds are in the Tar Heels' favor, and they should make it back to Omaha for the fourth straight year.