June 9, 2007

Chapel Hill, N.C. - The South Carolina-North Carolina NCAA Super Regional game has been halted in the bottom of the seventh inning due to severe weather in the Chapel Hill, N.C. area. The game will resume on Sunday afternoon at 2:36 pm on ESPN2. The Gamecocks lead the Tar Heels 8-5 in the bottom of the seventh inning with no outs. An "if necessary" game is still scheduled for 7 pm should the Gamecocks win.

For the second straight day, the Gamecocks opened up a lead in the first inning with three runs against the Tar Heels. Travis Jones drew a leadoff walk against North Carolina starter Alex White and scored on a one-out double from Justin Smoak. The Gamecocks would follow that with a walk to Phil Disher and a RBI double from Trent Kline to gain a two-run cushion. South Carolina's third run was unearned when Disher scored on a throwing error by Tar Heel shortstop Josh Horton.

North Carolina picked up where it left off from Friday's game scoring a pair of runs with two outs in the top of the second inning to get within a run of the Gamecocks. Seth Williams connected with a two-out RBI single to left field to score Tim Federowicz and put the Tar Heels on the scoreboard. North Carolina then took advantage of a throwing error by James Darnell to score its second run of the game.

South Carolina went ahead 4-2 in the bottom of the third inning as Justin Smoak launched his 22nd home run of the year over the right field wall on White's first pitch of the frame. The Gamecocks added to that lead with four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to extend the advantage to 8-2 against the Tar Heels. Harley Lail got things started with a double down the left field line and Reese Havens drew a walk to give the Gamecocks a pair of runners with no outs. After a balk by White advanced the runners a base, South Carolina scored its first run of the inning on Steven Reinhold's sacrifice fly to center field. With White out of the game, the Gamecocks scored three more runs against North Carolina reliever Matt Danford. James Darnell collected a two-out RBI single and a two-run double from Phil Disher catapulted the Gamecocks to a six-run lead.

North Carolina got one run back in the top of the fifth inning as Benji Johnson doubled and scored on a wild pitch from Hempy to cut the Gamecock lead to 8-3. North Carolina added two runs also in the sixth inning on a two-run single from Federowicz to bring the Tar Heels within three runs.