Panic does not exist on the USC baseball team.<\/p>\n
Down 5-1 after five innings to fifth-seeded North Carolina, the Trojans used a grand slam from Dean Carpentier to spark a 9-5 comeback victory Friday in the first game of the Chapel Hill Super Regional.<\/p>\n
The Trojans are rolling with a significant amount of momentum. After losing the opening game of the College Station Regional, USC stared down the threat of elimination and racked up four consecutive wins by a composite score of 55-14 to advance to its first super regional in 21 years.<\/p>\n
USC (48-16) is now in the driver\u2019s seat of the best-of-three series as it seeks its first College World Series berth since 2001. Game 2 is at 11 a.m. PDT Saturday. If necessary, Game 3 will be Sunday at a time to be determined.<\/p>\n
Tar Heels starter Ryan Lynch had been cruising, surrendering just one run and three hits through five innings while staked to a four-run lead. In the sixth, the Trojans got consecutive singles from Adrian Lopez, Augie Lopez and Kevin Takeuchi to make it a 5-2 game. Lynch got a groundout and a strikeout before the sophomore right-hander gave way to Walker McDuffie out of the bullpen.<\/p>\n
After Andrew Lamb walked to load the bases, Carpentier stepped in. The Huntington Beach High product grooved a one-strike slider over the fence in left field for his fourth homer of the season, his first career grand slam and USC\u2019s first lead of the game.<\/p>\n
The Lopezes, no relation, got it started again in the sixth. Adrian Lopez doubled and Augie Lopez singled, followed by a Takeuchi walk. USC then got an RBI groundout from Isaac Cadena, a run-scoring fielder\u2019s choice that didn\u2019t produce an out from Jack Basseer and a picture-perfect sacrifice bunt from Lamb to boost the lead to 9-5.<\/p>\n
USC sophomore right-hander Andrew Johnson, from Capistrano Valley Christian High, iced North Carolina over the final 3\u2154 innings, allowing no runs and just two hits.<\/p>\n
Trojans starter Mason Edwards didn\u2019t have his best stuff on Friday. The USC ace got through a shaky first inning in which North Carolina led off with a walk, a single and a walk to load the bases, only for the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year to set down the next three batters swinging.<\/p>\n
North Carolina (48-12-1) broke through in the second inning. After a single and a walk to open the frame, one out later Jake Schaffner delivered an RBI single to right and Gavin Gallaher followed with a sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Lamb cut USC\u2019s deficit lead in half with a solo leadoff homer in the third, only for the Tar Heels to tack on two more runs courtesy of an Erik Paulsen double and an error by Edwards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Panic does not exist on the USC baseball team. Down 5-1 after five innings to fifth-seeded North Carolina,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[10932,1327,131,133,132,142825,127,125696],"class_list":["post-348966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-college-baseball","tag-college-sports","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-ncaa-baseball","tag-sports","tag-usc-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}