Woodard pitches UNC past Rice to avoid elimination

Ackley smacks three-run homer for Tar Heels

Robert Woodard pitched 6.2 solid innings to carry North Carolina past Rice 6-1 on Wednesday afternoon at the College World Series at Rosenblatt Stadium.

The Tar Heels (55-15) will face the Owls (56-13) one more time on Thursday at either 2 p.m. or 7 p.m., depending on the outcome of tonight's Oregon State-UC Irvine contest.

Woodard (11-2) allowed five hits and one run with one walk and four strikeouts. Rob Wooten surrendered a hit and a walk in 0.2 innings before Andrew Carignan worked the final 1.2 innings with one hit and one walk.

Dustin Ackley had the big blow for the Tar Heels, a three-run homer in the top of the seventh that gave UNC a 6-0 cushion. Josh Horton had an RBI single in the first for UNC. In the top of the second, Reid Fronk drew a bases-loaded walk and Tim Federoff hit a sacrifice fly to put the Heels on top 3-0.

Rice scored its run in the bottom of the seventh as Jared Gayhart had a leadoff single and scored two outs later on an RBI double by Danny Lehmann.