USC baseball stuns No. 4 UNC 9-5 in Super Regional opener
Friday marked the first Super Regionals appearance for USC baseball in more than 20 years. It had no choice but to make it a memorable one.
USC stunned No. 4 UNC in a 9-5 comeback win in the opening game of the Chapel Hill Super Regional behind a go-ahead gram slam from Dean Carpentier. The Trojans now sit one win away from their first College World Series since 2001.
“This means the most to us,” said Carpentier after the win. “We are here to win and do this thing.”
“Good game. Well played ball game. Bit of a roller coaster ride up and down. Typically, what we get in the postseason,” said USC head coach Andy Stankiewicz. “They jumped out and we were able to hang in there and minimize a little bit…we just knew if we kept ourselves in it, we knew we’d have a shot.”
Turning Point
Trailing for most of the day, USC baseball turned the game in the sixth with Carpentier’s grand slam to silence Boshamer Stadium. The Trojans finally wore down UNC starter Ryan Lynch with three consecutive singles, the final from Kevin Takeuchi scoring Adrian Lopez to make it a 5-2 game.
Lynch rallied back for two outs to set up ace reliever Walker McDuffie out of the pen. But a walk to Andrew Lamb loaded the bases and a slider hanging to Carpentier landed over the left field wall and put Lady Momentum in Cardinal & Gold.
“I was sitting on a slider. He’s a slider guy. I got a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it,” said Carpentier on the home run. “Kinda found a way out of the yard.”
USC’s bats did not stop there with three more runs to kick off the seventh inning, including a perfect safety squeeze for the ninth run. The Trojan offense has now recorded 64 runs over their five-game win streak.
The Trojans were on their heels for most of the contest, going down 5-1 entering the sixth as the Tar Heels knocked out ace Mason Edwards after three innings.
USC baseball got on the board in the third inning with a solo home run, its first hit, from Lamb to make it a 2-1 UNC lead. But UNC added two more runs in the bottom of the third to snuff that USC spark.
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Edwards labored through three innings with four runs allowed and four walks. He struck out five. But the bullpen picked him up with just five hits allowed and one run over the final six innings. Sophomore Andrew Johnson powered the effort with 3.2 scoreless innings to close out the win.
“We’ll see,” said Stankiewicz on Johnson’s availability moving forward. “You’ve seen the job that he did over in College Station. Big moment and we needed that again today.”
Setting Up Game 2
USC baseball will be back in action on Saturday on the right side of an elimination game. First pitch is scheduled for 11 a.m. PT on ESPN.
A USC win sends the program to its first College World Series since 2001 and their 22nd overall. A UNC win sets up a winner-take-all game on Sunday.
North Carolina will throw usual No. 1 starter Jason DeCaro (R). The All-ACC selection DeCaro is 10-2 on the season with a 2.34 ERA, 1.38 WHIP and 76 strikeouts. DeCaro hasn’t been as sharp in recent outings, failing to make it out of the fourth in back-to-back starts for the first time in his career.
USC will likely go with No. 2 starter Grant Govel (R) on Saturday. Govel is coming off a huge start off two days rest in Monday’s winner-take-all regional game, allowing just one run to Texas A&M.
