CHAPEL HILL — The North Carolina baseball team earned a No. 6 national seed in the NCAA tournament, which means the Tar Heels’ path to Omaha and the College World Series will remain in Chapel Hill.

UNC, the top seed in the Chapel Hill regional, will begin regional play on Friday at Boshamer Stadium against No. 4 Cornell, the champions of the Ivy League who are competing in the NCAA baseball tournament for the first time since 1977.

In the other Friday game in the Chapel Hill regional, No. 3 St. John’s, the Big East Champion, will play against second-seeded East Carolina. The winner between UNC and Cornell will play the winner between ECU and St. John’s on Saturday, while the losers of those first two games will play one another, too.

The double-elimination regional is scheduled to end on Sunday, but a deciding seventh game could be scheduled for Monday, if necessary. Game times will be announced later today. If UNC advances out of regional play, it would host a Super Regional.

The team that advances out of the Chapel Hill regional will play against the team that advances from the Tucson (Ariz.) regional. Arizona is the top-seeded team there, and the Wildcats are joined by No. 2 New Mexico State, No. 3 Louisville and No. 4 Missouri.

Jacob Stallings and the North Carolina baseball team will host an NCAA regional this weekend at Boshamer Stadium. PHOTO: News & Observer file.

CHAPEL HILL -- One day after their 12-inning pitcher’s duel captivated the largest crowd to watch a college baseball game in state history, North Carolina and N.C. State received news both teams had likely expected: They will both host a four-team regional in the upcoming NCAA Baseball Championship.

Miami celebrates Dale Carey's two-run home run that gave the Hurricanes the lead for good in the bottom of the seventh inning of their 5-3 victory against North Carolina on Thursday. PHOTO: Associated Press

GREENSBORO — The streak is over. North Carolina, which had won 14 consecutive games leading into its game against Miami here on Thursday in the ACC baseball championship, suffered a 5-3 loss against the Hurricanes.

You can check out the game story right here.

And here’s a quick look back at the Tar Heels’ first loss since April 24:

UNC catcher Jacob Stallings and the Tar Heels bring a 13-game winning streak into the ACC tournament. PHOTO: News & Observer file.

GREENSBORO — Welcome to Greensboro, and to the 2012 ACC baseball tournament. Before we go on, an apology for the lack of activity here on the blog of late. After spending last week out of the office, on furlough, things will be a lot more active from here forward.

Now onto baseball. We’ve already seen one upset here in Greensboro, at least in terms of seeding. Georgia Tech, the eighth seed, prevailed in a 5-4 victory against top-seeded Florida State, which has been ranked No. 1 nationally – in various polls – for much of the season.

What does this mean for North Carolina? That, possibly, the Tar Heels’ path to the ACC championship became a bit easier. The Seminoles now need to win their two remaining pool games, and hope for help (a Georgia Tech loss), in order to reach the championship game on Sunday.

CHAPEL HILL — Three North Carolina-related things to consider on this snow-melting Monday morning from Chapel Hill …

Carolina takes on Vanderbilt in the first game of the College World Series today, and you can watch on ESPN. The game begins at 2 p.m., live from Omaha, Nebraska.

The game between Florida and Texas will start at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

If you miss the games, you can catch them both on repeat on ESPN-U. The UNC game repeats there at 10:30 p.m. and the Florida game follows at 1 a.m.

Read more about today's game.

CHAPEL HILL -- North Carolina moves on to another College World Series.

The Tar Heels rode the strong arm of freshman lefthander Kent Emanuel and their stout bats to a gritty 7-5 victory over Stanford on Saturday, rallying from a one-run deficit with a three-run effort in the top of the fourth inning.

Once on top, the Heels opened a 6-1 lead in the seventh inning, then survived a four-run inning by the Cardinal in the top of the eighth. The Heels overcame a three-hour, 32-minute rain delay and held on for their 16th consecutive post-season home victory in the NCAA's best-of-three Super Regional series before an announced crowd of 3,749 at Boshamer Stadium.

Now it’s off to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., on June 18-29. The Heels (50-14) will make their fifth appearance since 2006.

updated 10:45 p.m.

CHAPEL HILL -- North Carolina shortstop Levi Michael had waited all weekend to cross home plate. Sunday, he did it at the right time.

With the score tied against James Madison in the top of the sixth inning, second baseman Tommy Coyle’s RBI single scored Michael – whose double halted an 0-for-11 slump in the three-day NCAA regional. It also began a late-game scoring barrage that pushed the Tar Heels to a 9-3 victory, and to their fifth trip to the NCAA Super Regionals in the last six years.

UNC (48-14), the No. 3 national seed, will face the either Stanford or Illinois out of the Cal State-Fullerton regional in a best-of-three series next weekend for the right advance to the eight-team College World Series. The Tar Heels are expected to host the Super Regional at Boshamer Stadium, although that – as well as game days and times – won’t be officially announced by the NCAA until Monday.

CHAPEL HILL -- The one time North Carolina right-hander Patrick Johnson was in trouble Saturday evening, the crowd built to a crescendo in anticipation of his one-ball, two-strike pitch in the sixth inning.

David Herbek, at the plate for James Madison with two runners on base and two out, entered the game with a team-leading .380 batting average. He was no match for Johnson, who blew a fastball past Herbek for strike three on the most important pitch of a dominating performance as the Tar Heels then broke open the game with seven runs in the seventh and cruised to a 14-0 win.

updated 9:48 p.m.

CHAPEL HILL -- Before North Carolina’s regional opener against Maine on Friday night, head coach Mike Fox -- who was not at Boshamer Stadium because of a personal matter dealing with a family member – sent associate head coach Scott Forbes an email that said, in part, “go with your gut.”

So Forbes – serving in a head coaching role for an entire game for the first time in college – stayed with starting left-hander Kent Emanuel for eight shutout innings, pulled him after 120 pitches, and helped his team to a 4-0 victory over Maine in the double-elimination regional.