If you had LSU and North Carolina in the losers’ bracket after Day 2 of the College World Series, raise your hand.
College World Series 2013 bracket update: North Carolina and LSU fall on Day 2
It has been a bad start for national seeds, who dropped to 0-3 after the heavily favored Tar Heels and Tigers both got pegged with surprise losses.
Now put your hand down, because you’re lying.
The No. 1 and No. 4 seeds (and tournament favorites) both stumbled on Sunday, part of an upside-down weekend in Omaha that saw all three of the remaining national seeds lose, including No. 3 Oregon State, who was dropped by Mississippi State on Saturday.
N.C. State claimed the first upset of the day when it rode a dominant performance from ace Carlos Rodon to an 8-1 victory over North Carolina. That marks the third time in this tournament that the Tar Heels have lost, and it may be time to start questioning if this team is really as good as its top seed suggests. There’s certainly plenty of talent, but the rotation is looking fatigued, not a good sign for a team that must now win four-straight games if it hopes to reach the finals.
UCLA then squeaked by LSU, 2-1, taking advantage of costly Tiger errors to scrape out two unearned runs. In the face of a driving wind and great pitching from Adam Plutko, LSU’s vaunted offense didn’t do much of anything outside of Mason Katz’s solo home run in the fourth inning. It was a surprising slip from a team that had looked unbeatable the previous weekend in a super-regional sweep of Oklahoma.
LSU and North Carolina will now meet in an elimination game at 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday. It’s shocking to think that one of these teams will be going home 0-2.
Meanwhile, N.C. State and UCLA will meet in the winners’ bracket at 8 p.m. later that night. The winner of that game will then get to sit back and relax until Friday, while the loser will be knocked down to play the winner of LSU-UNC.
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