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Tar Heels burned: Arizona State knocks North Carolina out of CWS with a 12-5 rout
AP Photo
Arizona State's Kole Calhoun hits a fifth-inning grand slam against North Carolina.
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Published: June 19, 2009
Updated: 06/19/2009 12:40 am
OMAHA, Neb. - Kole Calhoun hit the game-tying grand slam in the fifth inning and the go-ahead double in the seventh, and Arizona State erased a four-run deficit in a 12-5 victory over North Carolina at the College World Series last night.
Calhoun has homered in each of the Sun Devils' CWS games and has driven in 10 runs.
Arizona State (51-13), the No. 5 national seed, plays No. 1 Texas tonight. The Sun Devils have to win that game and another Saturday against the Longhorns to advance to next week's best-of-3 finals.
The 12 runs North Carolina (48-18) surrendered were a season high.
Arizona State starter Josh Spence (10-1) allowed seven hits and four runs, three earned, in seven innings. Colin Bates (4-4) took the loss in relief of Matt Harvey, who threw a CWS-record four wild pitches.
Harvey's control problems caught up to the Tar Heels in the fifth. He was pulled in favor of Brian Moran after hitting Jason Kipnis and walking Carlos Ramirez to load the bases.
Calhoun, the first batter to face Moran, slugged a 3-2 pitch into the seats 390 feet away in right-center field to tie the game 4-4.
Calhoun's homer was his 12th of the season and second off Moran. Calhoun tagged Moran for a three-run homer in the 10th inning in Arizona State's 5-2 win on Sunday.
North Carolina's usually dependable pitching melted down in the muggy 92-degree heat. Harvey, making his third career CWS start, walked five and hit two batters, in addition to his wild pitches.
Harvey and six other North Carolina pitchers combined to walk 10, hit four batters and throw five wild pitches.
ASU sent 13 to the plate in an eight-run seventh inning that Calhoun started with his two-run double into the right-center gap.
It was the Sun Devils' biggest inning of the season, and the second-most runs by a Tar Heels opponent in one inning. UNC gave up 10 to Virginia in the third inning in an ACC Tournament loss.
North Carolina's Dustin Ackley extended his NCAA Tournament hitting streak to 22 games with a single in his last at-bat. Ackley, the No. 2 draft pick by the Seattle Mariners, who was likely playing his final college game, has had at least one hit in each of his 15 career CWS games.
Ackley, who was 8 for 16 in three games in Omaha this year, has the CWS record with 28 career hits.
ASU coach Pat Murphy, who earlier in the week had ruled out Spence until the weekend, reconsidered and gave Spence, an Australian lefty, the surprise start against a Tar Heels lineup that included six left-handed batters.
Spence was pitching on three days' rest after allowing eight hits and one run in seven innings of the Sun Devils' win over the Tar Heels on Sunday.
The Tar Heels got to Spence early in the rematch. Their first two runs scored on Jacob Stallings' safety-squeeze bunts, and Mike Cavasinni and Ryan Graepel hit back-to-back RBI singles to put North Carolina up 4-0 in the fourth.
It was all Arizona State after that.
Calhoun's grand slam was the first by an ASU player at the CWS since Michael Collins in 1998. Sal Bando (1965) and Bob Horner (1978) also have hit slams in Omaha for the Sun Devils.
College World Series
(At Omaha, Neb.)
Pools
Bracket 1: Arkansas, Cal State Fullerton, Virginia, LSU
Bracket 2: Arizona State, North Carolina, Southern Miss, Texas
Eliminated teams
Bracket 1: Cal State-Fullerton
Bracket 2: Southern Mississippi
Tuesday
North Carolina 11, Southern Miss 4
-- Southern Miss. eliminated
Texas 10, Arizona State 6
Wednesday
Arkansas 4, Virginia 3 (12)
-- Virginia eliminated
Thursday
Arizona State 12, North Carolina 5
-- North Carolina eliminated
Friday
Game 11: LSU (53-16) vs. Arkansas (41-23), 2 p.m.
Game 12: Texas (48-14-1) vs. Arizona State (51-13), 7 p.m.
Saturday
Game 13: LSU vs. Arkansas, 2 p.m. or 7 p.m., if needed
Game 14: Texas vs. Arizona State 7 p.m., if needed
Note: if only one game is needed, it will be at 7 p.m.
Championship series (best of 3)
Bracket 1 winner vs. Bracket 2 winner, June 22-24, all games 7 p.m.
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