North Carolina (51-15) and Vanderbilt (53-11) opened the 2011 Men's College World Series upon their arrival to Omaha and today (7:05 pm ET, ESPN2) the schools will play again, but this time, the loser goes home. The tournament is a double-elimination event and the Tar Heels and Commodores each have one loss.
Oddsmakers at most offshore sports shops list the Commodores as -170 CWS Odds favorites for the game with a combined (over/under) total of 8 1/2-runs. Carolina backers will be getting +140 odds as moneyline underdogs.
It's expected that senior right-hander Greg Holt will take the mound for the Tar Heels in Wednesday's rematch. Holt, an eighth round draft pick by the Washington Nationals, has appeared in a team-high 32 games this season but almost exclusively in relief. Holt will be making his second start on the year.
Toeing the rubber for the Commodores will be senior right-hander Taylor Hill, who is 5-1 with a 2.84 ERA. Hill has made 16 starts on the year compiling over 92.0 innings of work. Opponents are hitting .244 on the year against Hill who owns a 88-22 strikeout to walk ratio in 2011.
North Carolina has already avoided elimination once with a 3-0 win over Texas on Monday afternoon. The Commodores were sent to the loser’s bracket after a 3-1 loss to Florida in a game that began on Monday, but because of bad weather, finished on Tuesday.
In the first game between the schools, Vanderbilt's Connor Harrell hit the first CWS home run in the new TD Ameritrade Park that broke a tie. Vandy went on to get a 7-3 win. Carolina did not get a quality start from Patrick Johnson but the big blow to Carolina was leaving 16 runners on base.
