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Coach Scott Forbes gets the North Carolina dugout ready for Monday night’s regional championship game against VCU in the NCAA baseball tournament at Boshamer Stadium.
The Tar Heels defeated VCU 7-3 on Monday night at Boshamer Stadium, seizing their third must-have victory in a row to complete a climb out of the losers bracket that claimed the Chapel Hill Regional title.
It’s on to the Super Regional round for UNC (42-20), the No. 10 overall seed in the NCAA field, which next meets Arkansas in a best-of-3 series.
North Carolina got coach Scott Forbes back following the two-game suspension stemming from an ejection that sent him into exile for Sunday’s games, when the Tar Heels held off Georgia 6-5 and crushed VCU 19-8 to force Monday’s winner-take-all regional championship.
Danny Serretti belted a two-run homer and Mikey Madej homered and drove in three runs for UNC, which turned to lefty starter Brandon Schaeffer on one day of rest in piecing together its pitching.
Coach Scott Forbes gets the North Carolina dugout ready for Monday night’s regional championship game against VCU in the NCAA baseball tournament at Boshamer Stadium.
Times-News
Photo courtesy of UNC athletics
Schaeffer pitched into the fourth inning, then Gage Gillian came out of the bullpen for his fourth appearance in North Carolina’s five games during this regional. Gillian tossed 4⅓ scoreless innings in relief, and the home crowd was sensing a win by the bottom of the eighth, as second baseman Colby Wilkerson ranged into shallow right field to scoop a grounder for the last out of the inning.
UNC led 4-0 after the top of the first inning, striking early again. North Carolina erupted for seven runs against VCU on Sunday night.
VCU (42-20), the Atlantic 10 Tournament champion, suffered back-to-back losses for the first time since April 24 and 26.
The Tar Heels, champions of the ACC Tournament, earned their 10th trip to the Super Regionals under the NCAA’s format that has been in place since 1999.
Adam Smith is a sports reporter for the Burlington Times-News and USA TODAY Network. You can reach him by email at asmith@thetimesnews.com or @adam_smithTN on Twitter.
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