(Jeffrey A. Camarati/ UNC Athletics)

The Tar Heels might have lost, 12-2, on one bad pitch.

It seems ridiculous to say, but if Carolina could have gotten out of the second inning against Mississippi State Tuesday, the Diamond Heels might have beaten the Bulldogs instead of getting crushed in the eight-run eighth.

Austin Bergner hung a curve ball to the No. 9 hitter, Jordan Westburg, who about hit it out of Omaha for a grand slam home run and 4-1 lead that Mississippi State never lost. Yes, it was a hanger, but the freshman batter was the worst in the lineup who had hit one other dinger all season.

The Tar Heels had chances to get out of that inning unscathed before Westburg ever came to the plate. Committing an error and missing a potential double play kept them on the field long enough for the nine-hole hitter to unload his bomb.

Bergner retired the next 16 batters he faced and struck out eight Bulldogs before coming out after seven. He threw one bad pitch that put Carolina on the defensive, and sometimes that’s all it takes in baseball — and sometimes there comes a frame to forget.

Despite crawling back to 4-2, Carolina had one of those innings that Mike Fox said has given him nightmares his entire coaching career. Everything went wrong to let a close game blow up into a blowout and leave UNC one loss from coming home.

The team vying to chase them out of Omaha is a familiar foe. The same Oregon State Beavers the Tar Heels beat in the College World Series opener is now the opponent in the elimination game Wednesday night. Carolina’s past CWS history against OSU is not very pretty.

Fortunately, Fox’s team played the same kind of game against the Beavers Saturday that it will take to beat them again and get another crack at Mississippi State to make the championship, three-game series. Cooper Criswell, who was not supposed to pitch Saturday, had to go two-and-a-third innings after Luca Dalatri left the game in the first inning. Criswell gets the start tonight at 7.

The roster shined all Saturday, making great plays on the field and getting big hits as Carolina defeated its Omaha nemesis, 8-6. That all hands-on-deck game plan is the one Fox will look to execute again or face another early exit from the Series.

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