UNC baseball moves on to Omaha

Stanford only trailed North Carolina by one run before a rain delay stopped the NCAA super regional game for three and a half hours on Saturday.

There was a College World Series berth on the line. But while he waited for play to resume, UNC catcher Jacob Stallings didn’t sweat it — he just had a feeling that everything was going to be OK.

“He said, ‘Coach, don’t worry. Tommy’s going to get on. I’m going to get a base hit,’” coach Mike Fox said.

“I don’t know whether he was trying to calm me down or whether he was just trying to convince himself that he was going to do it.”

With two outs and two strikes against him in the top of the ninth inning, Stallings blasted a line drive into center field just over the Stanford shortstop’s head, scoring Levi Michael.

The Tar Heels held onto their lead in the bottom of the inning to cruise to a 7-5 win against the Cardinal and earn their ninth trip to the College World Series.

“I told them three or four weeks ago — it was just something I felt deep inside, that we were going to go back,” Fox said. “And they did it.”

The insurance run in the top of the ninth gave the Tar Heels a little confidence, and closer Michael Morin struck out two in the bottom of the inning.

Freshman Kent Emanuel, now 8-2 on the season, allowed just five hits and one run while striking out five in six innings pitched.

UNC led the Cardinal by as many as five runs, but with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, Stanford’s Austin Wilson hit a three-RBI double to bring the Cardinal within one.

Stanford led UNC 1-0 through the first three innings of the game before senior center fielder Ben Bunting batted in the first Tar Heel run in the top of the fourth. Brian Holberton followed moments later with an RBI double to give UNC a 3-1 lead.

North Carolina will be one of eight teams competing in the College World Series, which will begin Saturday in Omaha, Neb.

This will be the fifth College World Series appearance in six years for the Tar Heels, who will be in the hunt for their first national championship.

Lately, going to Omaha has become a ritual of sorts for Fox.

But instead of talking about the successes of the past, Fox just wanted to focus on the excitement of the present, he said.

“Everybody wants to talk about the years we’ve been there, and I just want to talk about 2011 and the 27 players that are going to be able to get on that plane… and what they’re going to experience,” he said. “It’s the neatest feeling ever.”