A turnaround season for North Carolina's baseball team ended Wednesday night with a 5-1 loss to Vanderbilt in a College World Series elimination game.
North Carolina had reached the CWS for the fifth time in six years after getting knocked out in regional play in 2010.
"You know, we weren't a very good team last year, and then to turn around like this and have such a great year with 50 wins, it's a testament to our leadership," said Jacob Stallings, a Tar Heels catcher and first baseman. "Obviously, we were happy to get here, but once we were here I think we wish we would have played a little better."
Regret for the Tar Heels will center on missed opportunities. North Carolina (51-16) left nine runners on base for the second straight game and stranded a total of 34 in its three CWS games. The Tar Heels were just 7 for 39 with runners in scoring position.
"That's probably what will be written about," North Carolina coach Mike Fox said. "We left a lot of people on base out here for three games, but a lot of that has to do with the other team. We were facing some pretty good arms. It didn't happen for us."
The Tar Heels couldn't advance a runner past first base after they scored in the fifth.
Vanderbilt's reward for the victory is another game against Southeastern Conference rival Florida, which has beaten the Commodores (54-11) in four of five meetings this season.
"We're not thinking, 'How the heck can we beat Florida?' It's not really in the back of our minds at all," outfielder Connor Harrell said. "We feel we can compete with them. We feel we match up with them well, but we'll see what happens on Friday.
"We're going to come in confident."
As well they should after their second CWS win over North Carolina.
Taylor Hill and Corey Williams combined on four-hitter and Harrell and Curt Casali homered for the Commodores (54-11), who led 5-0 in the third inning.
Vanderbilt, which lost 3-1 to Florida on Tuesday, would need to beat the Gators on Friday and again Saturday to reach next week's best-of-3 finals.
Taylor Hill (6-1) outdueled Greg Holt (7-2) in a matchup of Washington Nationals draft picks.
Hill, taken in the sixth round, allowed a run and four hits in seven innings in his first outing since June 5.
Holt, an eighth-rounder who was making his second start of the season, lasted 22/3 innings. He gave up five runs and four hits, leaving after Casali's homer.
Hill pitched out of trouble that inning after Ben Bunting's bases-loaded RBI groundout left first base open.
Hill intentionally walked All-America Colin Moran with two outs to face Stallings, who had doubled in his first two at-bats. Stallings fouled off an 0-2 pitch barely outside the left-field line, then swung and missed at a fastball.
"I was just going to give it everything I had," Hill said. "If he hit it, he hit it. But thank goodness he didn't."
Fox said the fifth inning was deflating.
"You're down four and you have the bases loaded and you're thinking to yourself one swing of the bat, ball in the gap and we're right back in the game and we get the momentum in our dugout," Fox said. "They were in that situation several times while we were out here, and it just didn't happen for us."
Williams came on to start the eighth and has pitched 52/3 scoreless innings in three CWS appearances.
Harrell's three-run homer, aided by a 23 mph wind, put Vandy up 4-0 in the second inning. It was his second in three games here.
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