After a scoreless first inning, each side broke through in the second. North Carolina got singels from Horton, Seager, and Williams, the last driving in the first run of the game. South Carolina got even in the bottom of the inning. Harley Lail had a single, and after Putkonen hit Reinhold on a 1-2 pitch with two outs, Travis Jones singled in Lail to tie it up.

Sterling defense by USC, something that escaped them in the first two games, saved the Gamecocks' bacon and kept UNC off the board in the third. Consecutive briiliant outfield catches by Reinhold and Lail (Reinhold stretching out on a shot by Fedroff into the power alley, Lail clmbing the wall in rightfield to rob Ackley) prevented a Tar Heel uprising.

For the second straight game, a big fourth inning put SC in control. Singles by Lail and Havens set the plate for a 2-run double by Travis Jones and chased starter Luke Putkonen (3.1 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 W, 2 K). James Darnell and Justin Smoak greeted reliever Rob Wooten with base hits, the latter getting a double to make it 4-1 before Wooten was able to strike out Disher and Crisp to end the inning.

But as has been the case throughout the post-season, UNC came charging back in the sixth. With one out, Flack hit a ball that Reese Havens tried to backhand at shortstop, but he couldn't make the play and was charged with his fourth error of the series. Seager came right back at Havens with a line drive, and despite a diving attempt it went for a base hit. Following a full count walk to Seth Williams, the Tar Heels caught a break when Garrett Gore hit a hard ground ball that Mike Cisco got a glove on, but the ball caromed into no-man's land near first base and allowed two runs to score. That was enough for Coach Ray Tanner, as he brought in lefty Will Atwood in relief of Cisco. Reid Fronk knocked Atwood's first pitch for a base hit to tie it at four apiece when Williams scored on a fairly close play at the plate. UNC had the go-ahead run cut down at home when Tim Fedroff hit a grounder to third to Darnell, whose throw to the plate easily beat Gore.

"Come on, Chad, let's have an Alabama moment" yelled a fan behind me as Chad Flack came to the plate with one on and one out in the seventh, referring to Flack's two homer night in Tuscaloosa last year that sent UNC to the CWS. Flack must have heard him, because he ended UNC's nine game homerless streak with a shot off the scoreboard in left center field, giving UNC a 6-4 lead.

Knowing the huge stakes, UNC Coach Mike Fox decided not to screw around and brought in closer Andrew Carignan in the sixth. He let USC load the bases in the seventh thanks to two walks and a single, but escaped a disaster when James Darnell clubbed a long, high fly ball to right field that Fedroff caught about two feet in front of the wall.

The Tar Heels added a run in the eighth on an error by 2B Travis Jones which Tim Fedroff hustled out to get to second, and then scored on Dustin Ackley's single.

The Gamecocks could get nothing in the sixth through eighth innings off Carignan, but UNC added two insurance runs in the top of the ninth.