University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Louisville
Putkonen Pitches Tar Heels Past Louisville
June 19, 2007 | Baseball
June 19, 2007
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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- North Carolina proved the adage that good pitching beats good hitting Tuesday.
Luke Putkonen (7-0) and two relievers limited the Cardinals to three hits, and the Tar Heels won, 3-1, in an elimination game.
The Tar Heels also had three hits, but two of their runs were scored on a Louisville throwing error by third basemen Chris Dominguez. North Carolina advanced to a game against Rice on Wednesday. North Carolina (55-14), the 2006 runner-up, would have to beat the Owls twice to win their bracket and return to the best-of-three championship series, which starts Saturday.
Rice beat the Tar Heels, 14-4, on Sunday to send them to the elimination game against Louisville.
"This game is crazy," North Carolina Coach Mike Fox said. "You can go from a game where you score a lot of runs to none, because it's all controlled by that guy on the mound. I have a great deal of confidence in Luke. When he's on, he has as good a stuff as anybody."
He added, "Pitching and defense are the name of the game, and we got those today."
The Cardinals (47-24), who had batted .402 and scored 22 runs in their first two games, ended their first trip to the College World Series with their fewest hits since getting three in a loss to St. John's on May 5. They had not scored fewer than two runs since a 3-1 loss to Rutgers on May 25 in the second game of the Big East championship.
"Everybody putting in good at-bats for a long time is a hard thing," said Louisville's Logan Johnson, whose first-inning homer was his Series record-tying fourth in three games. "We ran into a good club and they pitched well. Things didn't go our way."
All of North Carolina's scoring came with two outs in the top of the second inning. Seth Williams hit a run-scoring single to center to tie the score, and the go-ahead runs came in when Garrett Gore grounded to third, and Dominguez threw wide of first baseman Daniel Burton.
"They jam a ball up the middle, and they cap a ball down the third-base line," Louisville Coach Dan McDonnell said. "Just a real tough play. Even if Ming makes a great throw, I don't know if we get him at first. If Dan scoops the ball, I don't know if he's out at first."
The Cardinals threatened with two outs in the bottom half of the eighth, but they stranded two runners when Isaiah Howes struck out against Andrew Carignan.
Carignan (2-3) struck out three of the four batters he faced for his 17th save.
Tar Heel starters had given up 32 earned runs and 47 hits in 25 2/3 innings during the previous seven games. But Putkonen, who had not made it out of the fifth inning in his previous two starts, all but shut down an offense that entered with a .370 batting average and 99 runs in 10 national tournament games.
A 6-foot-6 right-hander, he allowed Johnson's homer and two singles in seven innings. Putkonen tied his career high with seven strikeouts.
"My breaking ball was the best it's been all year," he said. "I kept them guessing up there."
Louisville finished its season with a team record for wins.
"As I told the kids, they'll go down as the greatest team to play baseball at the University of Louisville," McDonnell said. "If you're going to have the season end somewhere, you would rather it be in Omaha than anywhere else."
