Tar Heels face tough path to final

North Carolina senior Mike McKee said in his N&O "Snapshots from Omaha" on Sunday that the Tar Heels would have to "do this the hard way" after a first-round loss to Arizona State in 10 innings.

He was absolutely right. There is nothing easy about the Heels' path to the CWS final. It's a tough road, but not an impossible one.

To break down the schedule -- which has a lot of Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 loser type language -- the Heels have to win four straight games in a five-day period to make the championship round.

First, the Heels have to beat Southern Miss on Tuesday at 2 p.m.

The Golden Eagles are the long shot in the field, trying to send retiring coach Corky Palmer out in a big way. The question will be the emotional state of the teams on Tuesday. Will the Heels, in their fourth straight CWS, come out with more fire than the Eagles, who most desperately want to send Palmer out with at least one victory in the program's first trip to Omaha? We'll see.

If UNC wins that one, the grind really begins.

On Thursday, UNC would face the loser of Tuesday night's Arizona State-Texas matchup. Texas is the top seed in the CWS and Arizona State is the team that defeated the Heels 5-2 in 10 innings on Sunday. Tough game either way.

Then, should the Heels win Thursday, they would have to string together back-to-back wins on Friday and Saturday against the Tuesday night winner. That team -- again, either Texas or Arizona State -- will enter Friday well-rested and well-armed, having not played since Tuesday and having used only two starting pitchers.

If the Heels manage to pull off four straight victories in elimination games, they would get to take a well-deserved break on Sunday. A best-of-three championship series begins on Monday between the two bracket winners.

For UNC, it is indeed the hard way. But it's baseball, and anything can happen.