The College World Series completed its third day with Bracket One competition on Monday, with Florida State being eliminated by No. 1 seed Miami (Fla.) and No. 8 Georgia defeated Stanford, bumping the Cardinal into the loser bracket.
Bracket Two action resumes Tuesday with No. 6 Rice playing No. 7 LSU at 11 a.m. and Fresno State, which defeated Rice 17-5 Sunday, playing North Carolina. The Tar Heels advanced by beating LSU.
The winners of each bracket meet in a best two-of-three series for the national championship beginning Monday.
Batesole admitted he is not that familiar with the Tar Heels.
"We will have a scouting report by the end of the day," said Batesole, the 2008 National Coach of the Year. "But to be honest, I don't know a lot about them. I'm more concerned about the guys in our dugout. When you look at the stats you can see they have a very, very good pitching staff and they have two guys hitting over .400. They are obviously a very talented team that has played for the national championship the last two years. It's a cliché, but we respect everyone and fear no one. I'm more concerned about the 25 guys in our dugout and playing Bulldog baseball."
Joining Sean McDonough in the ESPN booth will be former Reds great Barry Larkin and on the field Erin Andrews.
Fresno State's run through the Long Beach Regional, Super Regional wins over No. 3 Arizona State and the impressive win over No. 5 Rice have taken the college baseball world by storm.
About North Carolina
North Carolina Tarheels (52-12): The Tarheels are 19-18 overall in the College World Series and they are making their third straight trip to Omaha. They have made six CWS, the first being in 1960. Mike Fox is in his 10th year as head coach at UNC and has a 449-188-4 record. In 24 years of coaching overall, Fox has a 989-329-5 record. UNC went unbeaten in the Regional and Super Regional, defeating Mount St. Mary's, UNC Wilmington and Coastal Carolina (twice). They are third in the nation with 51 wins are ranked No. 2 overall in the country. The Tarheel pitching staff leads the nation with a 2.83 ERA, 640 strikeouts and a .227 opponent batting average. They are led by Alex Warren on the mound with a 10-3 record and a 2.75 ERA.
UNC is just the second team in ACC history to make three-straight CWS
Dustin Ackley (.408) and Tim Fedroff (.398) are two of the top hitters in the ACC
The Tarheels are 10-13 all-time in the CWS