The last two days UNC has gotten the pitching that has escaped them nearly the whole postseason, as Luke Putkonen yesterday and Robert Woodard today were excellent.

Woodard picks up his 11th win of the season, after tossing 6.2 innings of one run ball, while giving up five hits, striking out four and walking just one. Rob Wooten came out of the bullpen to toss two-thirds of an inning, giving up a hit and a walk, and Andrew Carignan came in to close out the deal in a non-save situation, going 1.2 innings giving up a hit and a walk.

As for the Rice pitchers today, Wayne Graham seemed disappointed with his freshman Ryan Berry, who for the second straight outing, struggled. Berry hit four batters, and walked two more while allowing three hits in 3.2 innings. To his credit, UNC put up a two spot in the second, when his defense behind him committed two errors, so only one of the three runs was earned.

Chris Kelley came in and saved the pitching staff, going 4.2 giving up five hits, three runs, while walking one and striking out two. Finally Scott Lonergan came in and threw two-thirds of an inning, allowing nothing.

North Carolina's offense still only had eight hits, but that's still five more than they had yesterday against Louisville, so maybe they're coming out of it at the right time. Obviously without a doubt the pitching staff has given them two huge starts the last two days, with Woodard bouncing back today after a subpar performance in his first 2007 CWS go-around.

After the game, Rice head coach Wayne Graham didn't seem too distraught, he just felt they ran into a good pitcher and that they didn't play their best brand of baseball. Rice committing those two errors is very uncharacteristic by their standards, especially when one of them was on a pop fly behind second that Brian Friday dropped, and Aaron Luna knocked a ball down at second but couldn't make a play.

So now who's the pressure on? There was definitely a shift. After obviously being squarely on UNC's shoulders today, it'll now rest on both teams tomorrow, with their seasons on the line. A detailed preview will be up later this evening for that one, as we still have four teams in the CWS for at least the next few hours.