NCAA Baseball Tournament 2013 bracket update: North Carolina advances in wild 13-inning tilt

After four days, 64 teams and over 900 innings, the regional round of the 2013 college baseball tournament saved the best for last in its 100th and final game. With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the 13th inning, senior Cody Stubbs sent a shot down the left field line to give No. 1 overall seed North Carolina a 12-11 walk-off win in a wild back-and-forth battle with Florida Atlantic.

Florida Atlantic entered the top of the ninth inning trailing 6-2, but scored two quick runs to pull within two. Both runs came against UNC ace Kent Emmanual, who entered in the eighth only 48 hours removed from a 124-pitch start. After Emmanual was relieved with the bases loaded and two away, FAU’s Tyler Rocklein smashed a grand slam deep over the left field wall to give the Owls an 8-6 lead. The controversial decision to not only throw Emmanual on such short rest but to leave in him for roughly 50 pitches will surely spark discussions of implementing mandatory pitch counts in the college postseason.

The Tar Heels had no intentions of going quietly, however, putting together a dramatic two-run bottom of the ninth to tie things up and send the game into extras.

After quick innings in the 10th and 11th, FAU struck again in the top of the 12th. With two outs and two on, junior Levi Meyer crushed a three-run shot to left to put the Owls back up 11-9.

Once again, UNC mounted a rally in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases before earning back-to-back RBI walks to make it 11-10. With the bases still loaded, a liner into left field scored the tying run. A second runner rounded third attempting to score the game winner, but a perfect throw from FAU’s left fielder beat him to the plate and kept the Owls alive.

FAU’s dramatic upset bid would come up short, however, as the Tar Heels would load the bases again in the bottom of the 13th and set Stubbs up for his walk-off hit, which landed just inches inside the left field foul line and sent UNC on to the second round.

Meanwhile, Mississippi State, Rice, South Carolina and Vanderbilt clinched regional crowns with wins. South Carolina overcame some ninth inning drama in its rain-delayed 6-4 victories over Liberty to advance to its fourth straight super regional, while the Vanderbilt pitching staff showed off its impressive depth with a dominating 4-1 win over Georgia Tech. Mississippi State cruised into the second round with a 6-1 dismantling of Central Arkansas.

Many people around college baseball questioned the selection committee for making Oregon a national seed, a criticism that was validated when the Ducks were eliminated by Rice, 11-4, to became the only national seed not to make it out of the regionals in 2013.

Here’s the complete scoreboard for Monday’s games.

(National seeds in parentheses.)

With the close of Monday’s drama, the second round of the tournament is officially set. We’ll have in-depth previews for all of the sites as the week progresses, but for now, here are your super regional match ups: