UNC freshman Skye Bolt said he and the Tar Heels baseball team are ready for the College World Series in Omaha.

“I don’t think we could be set up better – the opening opponent, pitching, our group of guys,” Bolt said. “It’s about the right time for us to go off and play our best baseball.”

That opening opponent is rival N.C. State, which made the World Series for the first time since 1968. The two teams, who played an epic 18-inning battle in the ACC tournament which the Heels won, face each other Sunday at 3 p.m. in Omaha.

“I don’t think we really needed to travel 2000 plus miles to play ‘em,” Bolt said with a laugh. “I think it couldn’t have been scripted better to open up our trip out there. It’s something we are all excited about and I know they are excited about and I’m sure the fans out there are excited about it.”

Bolt, who is batting .330 despite missing 17 games earlier in the season due to a broken right foot, drove in the winning run in the ninth inning of the first game of the Super Regional a week ago.

Despite six of the Tar Heels’ 10 losses coming in the last month of the season, including two regional losses that put Carolina on the brink on elimination, Bolt says the Tar Heels (57-10) begin play in Omaha with the feeling that they can’t be beat.

“Every team has its highs and lows,” he said. “The baseball we played at the beginning of the year was beyond exceptional. It’s very hard to play baseball like that for four or five games much less 30-some games. We were really fortunate.”

Bolt said he believes the Tar Heels will get back to that early and mid-season form by playing good, solid defense, getting good pitching and getting the bats going a little better. “We going to continue to play our game of defense and pitching but if the bats peak like we’re hoping then it’s no question we’re going to be rolling through Omaha,” he said.

“Our seniors wanted to go back one more time and give it another shot,” he said. “The mood right now is ‘let’s win the school’s first championship.’ You get that vibe from everybody in the locker room.”

The North Carolina Tar Heels advanced to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., for the 10th time and the sixth time in the last eight years with a 5-4 comeback win over South Carolina. The Heels play rival N.C. State at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Here’s what they’re saying about the game.

SC coach Chad Holbrook (who played and coached at UNC)
“I felt like the game was there for us to win, and we didn’t make some plays that we normally make and do some things that we normally do. You’ve got to credit North Carolina. They got a big home run there in the second (by Brian Holberton) and pushed across three there in the sixth, and that opened the gates there for them a little bit.”

UNC coach Mike Fox
“I’m just very happy for these guys. Cody Stubbs, especially, one of our seniors who transferred here. I’m happy for all of them, but he always told me all he ever wanted to do was play in Omaha. He’s a senior, so he gets an opportunity to do that. It’s a special time for us and our program, and I’m proud of all these guys.”

UNC reliever Trent Thornton (on Chaz Frank dropping a pop fly allowing SC to go ahead 3-2)
“It kind of sucked. But we knew, the whole team, we haven’t given up all year and I knew that wasn’t going to be the deciding factor in this game. We all had (Frank’s) back.”

UNC’s Colin Moran (who led the Tar Heels from behind with a run-scoring triple in the sixth)
“I don’t think anyone really thought it was slipping away. I really didn’t want that play by (Frank) to decide the game. Knowing that it was the last home game for him and all the seniors, the last thing I wanted was something like that to be the last memory.”

News & Observer reporter Andrew Carter
“UNC’s path to Omaha… was more difficult than it was in 2008, 2009 and 2011, when they didn’t lose any of their six games in Super Regionals, and won all of them by at least two runs.”

ACC Pitcher of the Year Kent Emanuel (who got his first save of the year)
“I remember freshman year when we won the second game of Supers, all the freshmen, we were talking about to each other – it seemed a little too easy, it seemed like it happened real quick. Definitely not the case this year. This year we had some just incredible games.”

ESPN’s Eamonn Brennan said the University of North Carolina academic scandal was supposed to go away in December after former Gov. Jim Martin’s probe into academic fraud involving the sports program and the Afro-American Studies department. “It was supposed to be over,” Brennan wrote today. “Five months later, we still don’t know much, but we do know at least one thing: This is anything but over.”

He pointed to the Raleigh News & Observer’s article by Dan Kane over the weekend that shows emails from the chairman of the African studies department which discuss football tickets, athletic events and sideline access with sports support staff.

“In all, the emails still fall short of smoking gun status,” Brennan writes. “There is no direct evidence UNC athletics played an active role in academic fraud committed by the AFAM department… That may still be true, even if only technically so, but these emails make it harder than ever to believe.”

See the emails by clicking here.

To read the ESPN article, please click here.

To read the N&O article, please click here.

South Carolina’s Jordan Montgomery pitched a four-hit shutout Sunday as the Gamecocks whipped North Carolina 8-0 in the NCAA super regional to force a Game 3 set for 7 p.m. Monday at Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill. The game is being televised on ESPN2.

The winner goes to the College World Series in Omaha to play the winner of the NC State-Rice super regional.

The Gamecocks (43-19) scored five runs in the second inning with Joey Pankake driving in two of the runs.

The Tar Heels (56-10) won Saturday’s opener before falling on Sunday. UNC, the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tourney, has been to the College World Series five of the last seven years but the 8-0 loss was its worst defeat of the season.

Landon Lassiter, a freshman, led the Tar Heels with a pair of hits. He said he doesn’t think the shutout shifts the momentum to the Gamecocks. “No, I don’t think so,” Lassiter said. “That’s why you play three [games]. We’ll come out tomorrow and be ready to play. I mean, we haven’t lost two in a row all year. We have a great group of guys, and I’m looking forward to it.”

UNC freshman Skye Bolt, with two outs in the ninth inning, pushed a single into right field to drive in the winning run. The 6-5 victory in Chapel Hill puts the Tar Heels up 1-0 over South Carolina in the best of three series in the NCAA Super Regional.

Parks Jordan led off the ninth with a single to center. He was advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by leadoff batter Chaz Frank, who minutes earlier had been drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays. After Landon Lassiter lined out hard to right, the Tar Heels top hitter Colin Moran was intentionally walked.

With men on first and second, and two outs, and two strikes, Bolt ignited the sellout crowd and caused a mighty eruption from the UNC bench when he reached out on an outside pitch, to poke it into right field to score Jordan with the winning run.

It wasn’t the prettiest game as the Gamecocks committed three errors and the Tar Heels committed two but there was dramatic pitching and hitting. South Carolina outhit North Carolina 15-10.

The two teams play Game 2 Sunday at 1 p.m.

POSTGAME QUOTES

North Carolina Head Coach Mike Fox

Opening Statement:
“It was an incredible baseball game, and we were very fortunate to have won. We had some clutch swings of the bat by a lot of guys, a couple of them up here on the podium. Our bullpen saved us today, and I thought Chris Munnelly was a big key in the third inning to keep the score within reason. It was a big win for us.”

On his trust of Trent Thornton after this game:
“We’ve trusted Trent from the very beginning in any role that he’s been in. We have the luxury of being able to use him almost at any point and time in the game. We’ve done that down the stretch here. This was an incredible performance by him.”

On Kent Emanuel:
“He wasn’t locating any of his off-speed pitches, his changeup was floating on him a little bit, and he couldn’t command his breaking ball. He basically just had one pitch there. South Carolina just came out swinging, and pretty much swung the whole day. Last weekend didn’t have any bearing on Kent today.”

On the level of the underclassmen:
“If you’ve played this many games, they’re not [freshmen] anymore, they’ve been in tough environments before. We have contributions from a number of younger guys. They’ve been a big part of our success.”

Freshman OF Skye Bolt

On South Carolina walking Moran to get to him:
“I think it’s every guy’s dream as a hitter. It’s a situation that you live to be in, and I was excited to be put in that situation. I’ve had it a few times this year, and you’ve got to want to be in that situation. I love being in that situation.”

On the team’s resiliency:
“Hands down, they’re the greatest team I’ve ever played for. It starts with the seniors on down to us freshmen, pitchers to the hitters. It’s resiliency all the way through the lineup, and it’s resiliency all the way through the pitching staff. Every guy goes up there looking to help us win the ball game and to do their part.”

Freshman P Trent Thornton

On his pitching this season:
“You want to be in the game in these kinds of situations. We’ve been preparing our whole bullpen to come in late in the game, and most of the time, it’s been in close games, so we’ve had a lot of preparation. As coach was talking about earlier, we’re just resilient.”

Junior OF Parks Jordan

On batting in a pressure situation in the 9th:
“I wasn’t feeling any pressure. I’ve been in that situation a lot, and I just try not to overthink anything. I hit a couple balls hard in my first two bats, so I was just trying to go up there, not do too much and center the ball and get on base for the team.”

South Carolina Head Coach Chad Holbrook

Opening Statement:
“Congratulations to North Carolina. They are obviously 56-9 for a reason. As good as their pitching has been all year, the thing that has stood out to me about their team is their offensive approach, their willingness to never give in, the incredible job they do with two strikes and they have nine really good hitters in the lineup. You never really can catch your breath with those guys. That being said, we had our opportunities to win the game. We can’t drop fly balls and miss cut-off men in the outfield. That led to two runs, and obviously we lost by one. The game was there for us to win. We had opportunities to win it, and we didn’t capitalize on those opportunities. North Carolina, on the other hand, took advantage of a few mistakes that we made, and [Skye] Bolt there with the game-winning hit was a great at-bat against a veteran pitcher. You have to tip your cap to him. Outside of that, I’m proud of my guys for the way that they came to the park play. They gave me everything they had. They played as hard as they possibly could, [but] they just didn’t play as well as they possibly could. You have to play extremely well to beat North Carolina.”

On his team’s approach going forward:
“You come into this situation hoping to get to game three. We still have a chance to do that. The series isn’t lost. We’ve got some guys that have played in national championship games and [they have] got a couple rings on their fingers. They are not going to throw in the towel. It’s a tough loss, credit to North Carolina. But we will find a way to scratch and claw and see if we can win one tomorrow. Then [we will] play one for all the marbles I guess. That’s what our mindset has got to be. It was kind of our mindset coming up here, let’s get to game three and see what happens. We still have an opportunity to do that. We are just going to have to play a lot better tomorrow to be able to get to be able to get to a game three because they have a good pitcher going, and they obviously have momentum on their side. They are a terrific team and they are playing at home, so momentum is on their side right now, that’s for sure.”

Sophomore C Grayson Greiner

On the early lead that they opened up:
“Yeah, we were fortunate. We had some good at-bats early off of a very, very good pitcher in [Kent] Emanuel, but they just showed the depth of their bullpen throughout the game. He [Emanuel] came out early but they were able to sustain there with the bullpen. I think their bullpen went six or seven innings and kept us off balance. We weren’t really able to get anything going like we were off of Emanuel towards the end of the game, and that’s credit to them. They have a great bullpen and we just didn’t do enough.”

Senior P Nolan Belcher

On his performance:
“It’s my job to pitch to their hitters. I’m very disappointed in the way I threw. I have got to be able to go deeper in the game. Five innings, [and] five runs – that’s pretty bad. But it’s my job to pitch to their hitters and I didn’t do that today.”

Senior DH LB Dantzler

On the ebb and flow of the game:
“They are a great team and they got the big hit in the end, but like you said it was up and down. We got out [ahead] early, and they have showed all year that they can bounce back, and they did it again today. Like I said, they got the big hits and came out on top today.”

Boxscore

North Carolina guard P.J. Hairston has been charged with possession of marijuana during a license check in Durham Wednesday night. Hairston made a good decision to remain in school but a bad decision by having pot.

Despite the fact that marijuana is stronger and more dangerous than during the hippie days of the 1960s when it became popular, young people today seem to accept it more than any other generation has. There are more serious moves to make it legal than ever before.

But when you are a high-profile representative of the University of North Carolina, especially the basketball program that has enjoyed such a good reputation over the years, you’ve got to have more sense than to possess marijuana, even if most of your friends and acquaintances don’t think it’s a big deal.

It is a big deal. It is against the law and who knows what consequences there will be for the Heels’ leading scorer. Coach Roy Williams isn’t commenting yet.

Carolina fans rejoiced when they learned that Hairston would return to the team instead of going pro early like Reggie Bullock did. “At least we’ve still got Hairston.” They may wish Bullock had stayed and Hairston had gone. The North Carolina program doesn’t need any more negativity surrounding it.

Hairston was also charged with driving without a license – another stupid decision. Hairston and two other young men in the car are scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 6.

Kara Cannizzaro (Cazenovia, N.Y.), a senior midfielder from the University of North Carolina who led the Tar Heels to their first NCAA women’s lacrosse championship, has received the Honda Sports Award for lacrosse and becomes a finalist for the 2013 Honda Cup. Cannizzaro is the first Tar Heel lacrosse player to win the award, given to the national player of the year.

The Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA) will present the Honda Cup live on ESPNU, June 24 at the USC Galen Center Founders Room in Los Angeles.

“This is an amazing honor, something that a player can only dream of receiving, and I am truly grateful for being considered. I would like to thank the Honda Award committee for everything they do in this process. Also I would like to thank my teammates, because without them and their resilience I would not be in this position. This award is as much theirs as it is mine. Thank you so much again, and I am honored to be a recipient,” said Cannizzaro.

Named the NCAA tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, Cannizzaro scored four goals with two assists in the title game to lead the Tar Heels to an upset of top-seeded, undefeated Maryland with a 13-12 win in triple overtime, the longest title game in NCAA championship history. North Carolina finished the season with an 18-3 record, and Cannizzaro finished her All-ACC and All-America season with a school-record 83 points on 61 goals with 22 assists.

“The Honda Award is such a tremendous honor, and I cannot think of a more deserving student athlete than Kara Cannizzaro,” said UNC head coach Jenny Levy. “The impact and influence that she had on our young team was unparalleled, as our team was never considered a front runner for the 2013 national title. Kara was instrumental in leading our team and helping develop what would become our identity of a tough and relentless mentality. As a co-captain, she fostered a fun and welcoming atmosphere that encouraged all players to realize their full potential and our team to develop an unwavering belief in ourselves. Without her consistent, fearless and dominant performances throughout this season and during our NCAA Tournament run, our team would not have captured its first national championship. Kara is an extremely hardworking and passionate athlete, an exemplary student and a contributor to the community, a true champion in all arenas, representing North Carolina and the sport of lacrosse in a first class manner.”

The CWSA presents the Honda Sports Award annually to top women athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports. With this honor, Cannizzaro, majoring in journalism and communications studies, becomes a finalist for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and the 2013 Honda Cup. She was chosen for the Honda Sports Award by a vote among the United States Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Association (USILWCA). Finalists included Alex Aust (Maryland), Becca Block (Syracuse), and Katie Schwarzmann (Maryland).

Cannizzaro will be joined in Los Angeles by an impressive roster of 2013 Honda Cup finalists including Iowa State’s Betsy Saina (cross country), Princeton’s Katie Reinprecht (field hockey), North Carolina’s Crystal Dunn (soccer), Oregon’s Alaina Bergsma (volleyball), Georgia’s Allison Schmitt (swimming & diving), Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne (basketball), Florida’s Bridget Sloan (gymnastics), USC’s Annie Park (golf), Stanford’s Nicole Gibbs (tennis) and winners yet to be named in track and field, and softball. The Honda Cup finalists will be joined by the 2013 Honda Inspiration Winner, Purdue’s Andrea “Drey” Mingo, and the NCAA Div. II Athlete of the Year, Ashland University’s Kari Daugherty. The Div. III Athlete of the Year is yet to be named.

The Collegiate Women Sports Awards has honored the nation’s top NCAA women athletes for 37 years, recognizing superior athletic skills, leadership, academic excellence and eagerness to participate in community service. Since commencing its sponsorship in 1986, Honda has provided more than $2.5 million in institutional grants to the universities of the award winners and nominees to support women’s athletics programs at the institutions. Previous Honda Cup winners include Brittney Griner, Ann Meyers Drysdale, Lisa Fernandez, Misty May-Treanor, Maya Moore, and Candace Parker.