College World Series | UNC eliminated with 9-5 loss to Florida State

Florida State maintains a 7-4 lead against UNC in a College World Series elimination game Tuesday.

The Seminoles jumped out to an early 3-0 lead against North Carolina, then added four more runs in the top of the fifth for a 7-1 lead.

Just as the Noles appeared in total control, the Heels, as they have done all postseason, have fought back in the bottom of the fifth. Vance Honeycutt unloaded a three-run home run that scored Alex Madera and Colby Wilkerson.

The Heels then brought the tying run to the plate with two outs after Parks Harber singled and Anthony Donofrio walked

Jackson Van De Brake then brought the Heels a little closer with a single that scored Harber and moved Donofrio to second.

Luke Stevenson now represents the go-ahead run but he grounds out up the middle to end the threat.

Still, we have a game again. 7-5 FSU after five innings.

The Florida State Seminoles took charge of the first College World Series elimination game Tuesday.

The Noles jumped out to an early 3-0 lead against North Carolina.

In the third inning, the Tar Heels were already on their third pitcher of the game. That pitcher is star reliever Dalton Pence.

It's unclear how long Pence can go, but the Heels will surely ride him as long as he's effective. That's because the loser of this game will be done for the season. The winner advances to play Tennessee again.

In the bottom of the third inning, the Tar Heels were able to scratch across one run, making the score 3-1 after 3 innings.

Both UNC and FSU have already lost to Tennessee in this tournament. Which ever team advances must then beat the Volunteers in back to back games to earn a berth in the CWS Finals.

Fourth-seeded North Carolina will look to keep its championship dreams alive against No. 8 seed Florida State in an elimination game Tuesday at the College World Series.

The game is scheduled for 2 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN.

The winner faces Tennessee on Wednesday afternoon.

It is the first meeting between the Tar Heels and Seminoles since 2022.

Two-way star Jac Caglianone broke the Florida single-season home run record to give his school the lead an inning after he struggled on the mound and got pulled, and the Gators eliminated NC State from the College World Series with a 5-4 victory Monday.
Florida (35-29) moved to another elimination game Tuesday against the loser of Monday night's Texas A&M-Kentucky matchup.

NC State (38-23) went 0-2 in the CWS for the first time in four all-time appearances.

Caglianone, a projected top-five pick in next month's amateur draft because of his bat, not his arm, labored through a 33-pitch first inning. The 6-foot-5, 250-pound lefty hit a batter and walked two to load the bases, gave up Brandon Butterworth's RBI single and then got a strikeout and fly out to mitigate what could have been a big inning for NC State.

His fastball averaged 89.5 mph in the inning - it had never been below 92 mph in his career, according to ESPN - and he was shown rubbing his elbow in the dugout after the first inning. Coach Kevin O'Sullivan opted to lift him for Cade Fisher (4-3) but said during an in-game interview that Caglianone's problem related to fatigue rather than an injury.

Caglianone stayed in the game as the designated hitter and atoned for what happened on the mound. NC State starter Dominic Fritton (3-7) struck him out on three pitches in the first inning, but in the second Caglianone drilled his low fastball over the right-center fence for a three-run homer and 4-1 lead.

The 404-foot low rider was his 34th homer of the season, breaking his school's single-season record of 33 set last year, and moved him into a tie with Matt LaPorta (2004-07) for career homers at Florida with 74.
Logan Whitaker replaced Fritton to start the third and allowed two hits and a run and struck out 10 over seven innings.

The Wolfpack's Alec Makarewicz and Gators' Tyler Shelnut also homered, and NC State cut the lead to 5-4 in the fifth on Butterworth's RBI double.

NC State had its leadoff man reach base in the sixth, seventh and eighth but couldn't push the tying run across. Luke Nixon got caught stealing second in the sixth, and the Wolfpack left two runners on base in the seventh and stranded a man on third in the eighth when Brandon Neely ended both innings with strikeouts.

The Wolfpack, which was third in the nation with seven walk-off wins, had the top of the order up in the bottom of the ninth. Neely caught Eli Serrano III looking at strike three, Garrett Pennington struck out when he couldn't check his swing on a pitch out of the zone, and Makarewicz lined out to left to end the game.

The Associated Press contributed.