Tar Heels Headed To Omaha

Sunday, June 10

Chapel Hill, N.C.

7:00 PM

North Carolina

South Carolina

June 10, 2007 | Baseball

By: UNC Athletic Communications

June 10, 2007

NOTE: Extensive game and postgame photos will be posted on Monday.

By JOEDY McCREARY
AP Sports Writer

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - Chad Flack spent this season in a slump, desperately trying to resemble the player who hit the home run that carried North Carolina into last year's College World Series.

Then, exactly one year after the homer that defined his career, he rediscovered that form and came through with another one.

Flack's tiebreaking two-run shot in the seventh propelled North Carolina to a 9-4 win over South Carolina on Sunday night in the deciding game of their best-of-three super regional series.

"This is what we've worked for all year long," Flack said. "We came back the first day of fall and told each other, 'Last year was fun, but it's over with.' We started working from Day 1 right there, never looked back from there and that's what got us to this point right here."

Flack - whose two-run game-ending homer in last season's super regional at Alabama on June 10, 2006, gave the Tar Heels their first CWS berth since 1989 - came through with another crucial shot in the postseason. This time, his towering drive to left-center off reliever Will Atwood snapped a 4-4 tie.

It was clearly the most noteworthy swing of a trying season for Flack, a career .363 hitter whose batting average this season is more than 100 points below that.

"Probably not a bigger swing of the bat than that home run," North Carolina coach Mike Fox said. "He has kept his attitude up the whole time, and mentally, I'm sure, it hurt him not to be doing the things he was doing last year, but he hung in there."

Flack's seventh homer of the season and first since May 19 came just in time for North Carolina (53-13), which snapped a nine-game homer drought and now will face Mississippi State in Omaha in its sixth CWS appearance. The Tar Heels are making consecutive trips to Omaha for the first time in school history.

"It's hard to get back to the College World Series," Fox said. "You've got to cherish it."

Playing before a capacity crowd at Boshamer Stadium that included men's basketball coach Roy Williams and football coach Butch Davis, the Tar Heels came through with yet another postseason comeback by rallying from a three-run deficit.

North Carolina came from behind twice in last weekend's regional, then erased a six-run deficit to win Game 1 against the Gamecocks (46-20), whose season ended in the super regionals for the second straight year. Georgia beat South Carolina in Game 3 of last year's super regional series.

"Last year, you have a bitter feeling in your stomach leaving Georgia, and tonight, it's the same thing all over again," starter Mike Cisco said.

Dustin Ackley, Garrett Gore and Reid Fronk drove in late insurance runs for North Carolina, which was bounced from three straight NCAA tournaments by South Carolina from 2002-04.

Closer Andrew Carignan (2-1) relieved Rob Wooten in the sixth and finished the game, working four shutout innings.

"I pitch off adrenaline, and there probably couldn't be any more adrenaline than right then," Carignan said. "We know what it feels like to be there. I don't know if anybody has any idea how badly we want to go back."

Atwood (2-2) pitched one inning, allowing two earned runs on three hits.

The Tar Heels trailed 4-1 before tying it in the sixth. Gore started the rally when his bases-loaded single bounced off Cisco's glove and rolled between first and second, scoring two runs and chasing the Gamecocks starter. Fronk then greeted Atwood by singling home the tying run.

Travis Jones drove in three runs to lead the Gamecocks. He tied it with a run-scoring single in the second, then broke the 1-1 tie two innings later with a two-run double and scored two batters later to give the Gamecocks a three-run lead.

"We didn't tack on runs like we probably should have," catcher Trent Kline said.

South Carolina forced the winner-take-all finale earlier in the day by holding off the Tar Heels' comeback bid and completing a suspended-game 8-6 victory.

In that game, which was suspended Saturday night because of lightning and heavy rain, the Gamecocks nearly blew a six-run lead for the second straight game but used Smoak's 22nd homer and a key two-run double by Phil Disher to stay alive for one more game.