Only three of the eight original teams remain in Omaha for the College World Series and Oregon State will wait for the elimination of the Rice Owls or North Carolina Tar Heels when the two meet Thursday (7 p.m. ET) for the chance to play the Beavers in the best of three championship series on Saturday.
The Owls and Tar Heels play for the third time this CWS with the winner moving on for the chance at a National Championship while the loser goes home. Oddsmakers at Sportsbook.com favor Rice having installed the Owls with a -180 money line chalk. North Carolina is a +140 ml underdog.
Rice (56-13), at No. 2, and 2006 national runner-up North Carolina (56-14), at No. 3, are the only remaining national seeds in the CWS.
"They're the No. 3 team in the nation, so beating us twice in a row wouldn't be an upset," Rice's Joe Savery said. "At this point, you can't look at it as underdogs or that sort of thing. We just have to go win. As much as we want to talk about experience that benefits us, they have at least equal experience, and they made it a step farther last year."
Oregon State ended UC Irvine's spirited run in the postseason with a 7-1 victory over the Anteaters Wednesday. The game drew the second-largest crowd in CWS history with an attendance of 29,921 at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium.
Oregon State right-hander Daniel Turpen , who allowed one run and struck out five in eight innings of work, was replaced by Joe Paterson in the ninth and he retired the Anteaters in order to end UCI's magical season.
The Tar Heels, facing elimination , got a solid pitching performance by Robert Woodard whom shut down the Rice Owls for six-plus innings Wednesday and North Carolina stayed in the College World Series with a 6-1 victory.
Rice had 29 runs and 33 hits in its first two CWS games, one of which was a 14-4 victory over the Tar Heels on Sunday.
