The Cornell Big Red were defeated by the North Carolina Tar Heels, 7-4, in the second game of the Chapel Hill Regional in the 2012 NCAA Baseball Tournament.
North Carolina got on the board first in the second inning when a fielder's choice allowed Brian Holberton to score. The Tar Heels broke the game open in the fourth inning with four more runs. Jordan Parks, Adam Griffin, Colin Moran and Jacob Stallings got RBI hits in the inning. Cornell showed signs of life in the sixth inning when they scored three runs to cut into the lead. Brian Billigen hit a two-run homer while Kevin Tatum had an RBI single. The Big Red got one more run in the eighth on an RBI single by Brenton Peters. However, there was no comeback in store for Cornell as they couldn't get any runs across in the ninth inning.
Rick Marks got the start for Cornell but lasted just 3 2/3 innings in the loss after giving up nine hits, four earned runs and a walk. Hobbs Johnson started for the Tar Heels and went five innings in the win, giving up six hits and two earned runs while striking out five batters. Michael Morin came on in the eighth inning and recorded the last four outs of the game to pick up the save. He struck out two batters, gave up one hit and walked one batter in 1 1/3 innings of work.
Errors and stranded runners killed the Big Red on the day. Cornell left 12 runners on base and made a total of four errors during the game.
After losing to the No. 1-seeded Tar Heels, Cornell will face the No. 2 seed, East Carolina, in an elimination game on Saturday at 1 p.m. North Carolina will take on the No. 3 seed St. John's at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
The full 2012 NCAA tournament bracket can be found at NCAA.com.
For more on the NCAA Baseball Tournament, check back to this SB Nation New York StoryStream.