Tar Heels defeat USC 4-3 with ninth-inning rally, heading to College World Series

The North Carolina Tar Heels baseball team defeated the USC Trojans 4-3 on Sunday in a winner-take-all Game 3 of the Chapel Hill Super Regional, giving the Tar Heels their 13th appearance in the College World Series.

Sunday's win comes after UNC lost the first game of its Super Regional as USC rallied past the Tar Heels to take Game 1, but the Tar Heels evened the series on Saturday with a 4-0 win.

Adrian Lopez got the scoring started for the Trojans after he got home on a balk from the Tar Heels, giving the Trojans a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Carolina would get on the board in the bottom of the third inning, with a double from Owen Hull, allowing Jake Schaffner to score.

USC took the lead back with a home run from Kevin Takeuchi in the top of the 4th and another home run from Andrew Lamb in the very next inning. The Trojans carried that 3-1 lead into the bottom of the 8th.

The Tar Heels began closing the gap in the eighth inning with a Macon Winslow double to deep right center, allowing Hull to get home. The Tar Heels eventually completed the comeback by scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, winning the game 4-3.

UNC (48-11-1, 22-8 ACC) swept through the regional last weekend, beating VCU in the opener and East Carolina twice. The Tar Heels are the No. 5 seed nationally and reached the ACC championship game, falling to Georgia Tech.

USC (47-16, 20-10 Big Ten) won the College Station Regional by taking four straight games and outscoring their opponents 55-14 after losing the opener to Texas State.

Before Sunday, the Tar Heels last reached the CWS in 2024, when Florida State eliminated them. That was the program's 12th CWS appearance. As of Sunday afternoon, five teams have punched their tickets to the CWS: The Tar Heels, the West Virginia Mountaineers, the Troy Trojans, the Auburn Tigers and the Georgia Bulldogs. 

The College World Series begins on June 12 at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.