North Carolina’s Jason DeCaro shuts out USC baseball to force decisive Game 3

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Grant Govel was good, but Jason DeCaro was almost perfect.

USC baseball lost 4-0 in Game 2 of the NCAA Chapel Hill Super Regional, meaning its quest to break a 25-year College World Series drought will come down to a single game on Sunday.

North Carolina (49-12-1) turned to DeCaro with its season on the line, the seventh career NCAA tournament start for the veteran right-hander. DeCaro delivered a complete-game masterpiece, allowing just two hits — singles in the first and fifth innings — with eight strikeouts and one walk on a career-high 117 pitches.

“Obviously it was all about Jason DeCaro,” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz said. “He threw a heck of a game. He spotted his fastball and his breaking ball, we couldn’t get inside of it and couldn’t get through it. A very nice performance obviously by him, but the good thing is, we have tomorrow.”

Outside of giving up a solo home run to Colin Hynek in the second inning, Govel had a strong performance for USC (48-17). After throwing 153 pitches across two appearances in the NCAA regionals, including 64 pitches in Monday’s clinching win over Texas A&M, he gave up just five hits and struck out three over five innings and 83 pitches.

His final pitch was a crucial one, inducing an inning-ending double play with runners on the corners to hold the game at 1-0.

“Physically good,” Govel said when asked how he felt after making 236 pitches over a nine-day span. “I think having a good defense around me the entire time was very helpful. The solo shot didn’t really affect me. I’ve had a lot of homers hit off me this whole entire year. Competing with their guy — hats off to him, he pitched a hell of a game — felt good. The game just didn’t fall where we wanted it to.”

But for all of Govel’s great work, the day was all about DeCaro’s dominance.

North Carolina found success against the Trojans’ bullpen in the sixth. Erik Paulsen hit a 339-foot home run over the left-field corner wall to double the Tar Heels’ lead, just the second home run given up by USC’s Sax Matson all season. The Tar Heels added two more on sacrifice flies in the sixth and seventh innings, but failed to drive in more with the bases loaded in the seventh and ninth innings.

“We pitched well enough to keep ourselves close and give ourselves a shot,” Stankiewicz said. “But at the end of the day, it was just all about DeCaro.”

DeCaro got better as the game continued, retiring the final 10 USC batters. It was a dominant pitching performance, but thanks to USC’s comeback win Friday, the Trojans still have life.

North Carolina coach Scott Forbes confirmed either Folger Boaz or relief ace and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Assn. Stopper of the Year Award finalist Caden Glauber will start Game 3. Stankiewicz did not name a starting pitcher for the decisive game.

Regardless, it will be all hands on deck.

“We’ll need everybody,” Stankiewicz said. “We can’t go too long with too many.”

The game will start at noon PT on ESPN. The Trojans won four elimination games last weekend and they’ll need one more to complete its mission to Omaha.

“We tell our guys Sundays are always important,” Stankiewicz said. “This is probably the most important Sunday that they’ll ever play.”

The biggest afternoon of Trojans baseball in a quarter of a century awaits.