UNC, Clemson post wild opening-round victories

OMAHA, Neb. – Josh Horton broke a tie with an RBI single in the 13th inning and North Carolina beat Cal State Fullerton 7-5 on Friday night in the second-longest game in College World Series history at 4 hours, 53 minutes.

The only longer game in the CWS’ 60-year history was Oklahoma State’s 5-hour, 13-inning win over Arizona State in 1981.

The Tar Heels won after surviving a quirky 11th inning that saw Cory Vanderhook’s base-running blunder take Fullerton out of a good scoring opportunity.

North Carolina had four straight singles to open the 13th against Lauren Gagnier (14-5), Fullerton’s No. 2 starter who was making a rare relief appearance.

Andrew Carignan pitched an inning of two-hit relief to earn his 14th save. Matt Danford (7-1) was the winner.

The Tar Heels (51-13) advanced to a Sunday game against Clemson (53-14). Fullerton (48-14), which saw its 12-game winning streak end, will meet Georgia Tech (50-17) in a Bracket 1 elimination game.

Clemson 8, Georgia Tech 4: Andy D’Alessio hit a three-run homer in the eighth to highlight the biggest late-game CWS comeback in 20 years as the top-seeded Tigers beat the Atlantic Coast Conference rival Yellowjackets.

The Tigers capitalized on Georgia Tech’s bullpen meltdown to score all their runs in the eighth in the CWS’ opening game. D’Alessio’s homer off Ryan Turner allowed the Tigers to rally from a 4-0 deficit after Lee Hyde had held them to two hits over seven innings.

No team had come back from four or more runs down in the eighth inning to win in the CWS since Arizona rallied from a six-run deficit to beat Maine 8-7 in 1986.

The Tigers beat fellow ACC member Georgia Tech for the fourth time in seven meetings this season. It was the second time in a row the Tigers had used a big inning to beat the Yellow Jackets. Clemson scored 10 runs in the ninth inning of a 16-11 victory at the ACC tournament.