OMAHA, Neb.
After Arizona State's Josh Spence and North Carolina's Alex White tangled in a rare College World Series pitchers' duel, a bad break for North Carolina and a good swing of the bat by Kole Calhoun decided the outcome.
Calhoun's three-run homer off Brian Moran in the top of the 10th inning, after an error by UNC right fielder Garrett Gore led to the go-ahead run, carried Arizona State to a 5-2 victory yesterday in a game that left ASU coach Pat Murphy shaking his head.
"How many games do you strike out 14 times, get picked off twice, make an error and still win? Pretty lucky," Murphy said.
ASU (50-12) will play Tuesday night against the winner of last night's Southern Mississippi-Texas game. The Tar Heels (47-17) will play the Southern Miss-Texas loser in a Bracket 2 elimination game the same day.
Things finally broke open for the Sun Devils after Jason Kipnes reached when Gore misplayed his one-out fly ball near the warning track. The ball nicked Gore's glove and dropped. Carlos Ramirez followed with a base hit up the middle, scoring Drew Maggi from second to break a 1-1 tie.
Calhoun, who had grounded out to the mound his first three at-bats and struck out looking on his fourth, sent Moran's 1-1 pitch four rows into the stands in left-center field for a four-run lead.
"I wanted a better at-bat than the last four, and that wasn't hard to do," Calhoun said. "Murph told me to take what he gives me and hit it into left center. Fortunately, it got up in the air and got out of here."
White, who went nine innings in his fourth CWS start, matched his career-high with 12 strikeouts. White was touched for three doubles in the first two innings, but he allowed four singles the rest of the way in his 131 pitches.
Spence allowed eight singles over seven innings. He walked three and struck out eight in his 122-pitch outing, then gave way to lefty Mitchell Lambson (9-3) in the eighth.
Lambson gloved Gore's hard liner and threw to first to double up Levi Michael, ending the eighth. He caught Dustin Ackley looking at a pitch on the inside corner just above his knees to end the ninth, and struck out Mark Fleury and Gore to end the game.
Faced with the choice of starting Spence, a left-hander from Australia, or Mike Leake, a first-round pick of the Cincinnati Reds, Murphy went with Spence because UNC's lineup has six left-handed batters.
"Brilliance on my part," a smiling Murphy said.
Spence and Lambson stymied a UNC offense that had been batting .400 in the NCAA Tournament, 99 points above its regular-season mark of .301. The Heels came in averaging 10 runs in the postseason and had scored 45 in the previous four games.
Ackley, taken second overall by the Seattle Mariners last week, went 2 for 5 and extended his postseason hitting streak to 20 games.
Moran, the Tar Heels' All-Atlantic Coast Conference reliever, struggled against the Sun Devils after having allowed five runs in his previous 31 innings.
Colin Bates (4-3), who faced one batter in the 10th, took the loss, but Moran was clearly off his game when the Tar Heels needed him most.
"He got the ball up on the home run," Coach Mike Fox of UNC said. "He didn't look like he had the life he usually has. The home run shocked him a little bit."
UNC won its CWS opener each of the past three years but now finds itself one game from elimination.
"Just a tough loss," White said. "The good thing is that we get to play again."
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