"I guess you could say we ran out of miracles," LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. North Carolina (53-13), the national runner-up the past two years, will play Fresno State on Saturday in a Bracket 2 game. The Tar Heels would need to beat Fresno State twice to advance to the best-of-three championship series. It was LSU's third loss in six games after a 23-game winning streak. Two of the losses were to the Tar Heels. North Carolina defeated LSU 8-4 in an opening game.

"They have outstanding pitching and they deserve to move on. They were a little bit better than we were," Mainieri said. Ryan Graepel's double opened the top of the ninth for North Carolina. LSU (49-19-1) intentionally walked Dustin Ackley, who had singled in his four previous at-bats.

"Anyone who doesn't walk Ackley ought to have their head examined, to be honest with you," Mainieri said. "He's one of the best hitters in the country and we couldn't get him out tonight." After a strikeout and a wild pitch that put runners at second and third, Mainieri decided to intentionally walk Tim Fedroff, who was batting .401, to load the bases for Federowicz. Federowicz had been struggling in the series and struck out in his previous at-bat, but he hit a grand slam on a breaking ball on a 1-1 count.

"That was a great piece of hitting. You have to give the kid credit," Mainieri said. "I've already asked myself several times if I did the right thing there by walking the kid and I think if I had to do it over a thousand times I'd do the same thing. It just didn't work for us." Matt Clark's two-run homerÑhis national-leading 28th of the seasonÑfor LSU in the sixth tied the score at 3.

"North Carolina did a great job against us. They kept us off balance," Clark said. "They have a lot of guys in the bullpen. They can match up against us from the right side and left side. "Just tip your hat to them. They threw the ball well all year and it's not going to change when they get to the World Series."

North Carolina led 2-0 with one out in the top of the first and the bases loaded when the game was suspended Thursday night because of rain. The Tigers avoided more serious trouble with a double play when the game resumed Friday evening.

"That was the thinking, to go out and get a double play ball or hope for a double play ball, see what happens and go from there," said LSU pitcher Jared Bradford, who replaced starter Blake Martin when the game resumed. "It worked out the way we had planned. I thought it really ignited us so to speak and that's what we needed."

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