By R.L. Bynum

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — A year after working out of the losers’ bracket to win the Chapel Hill Regional, North Carolina couldn’t replicate that magic but made things interesting.

UNC rallied from a three-run eighth-inning deficit after No. 2 seed Iowa seized control with Brennen Dorighi’s three-run homer in the fifth inning. The Hawkeyes earned their second victory over UNC in the Terre Haute Regional, ousting the Tar Heels with a 6–5 13-inning victory Sunday afternoon at Bob Warn Field.

Mac Horvath tied it for UNC with a one-out, solo home run in the ninth inning. But Michael Seegers’ RBI triple to left-center in the 13th brought in the game-winning run.

“It’s always hard,” UNC coach Scott Forbes said. “There’s only one happy team at the end. I know what that feels like to lose even that last game, but it doesn’t matter. It’s hard.”

The Hawkeyes (44–16), who beat UNC 5–4 on Friday, lost 11–8 Sunday night to Indiana State as the Sycamores won the regional title and advanced to a Super Regional for the first time in program history.

Carolina is headed home after a frustrating loss to finish 36–24. The Tar Heels tried to become the first team in program history to win a regional after losing the opener, but they fell short for the fifth time (also in 1993, 1998, 2014 and 2017).

“I was just kind of a mark of our team to go down and, all of the sudden, it’s tied,” Forbes said. “I really felt like we were going to win that game. And it just didn’t happen for us, but I’m sure it wasn’t caused by the lack of effort or togetherness.”

It was another afternoon of missed Carolina opportunities, beginning with leaving the base loaded in the first inning, as the Tar Heels finished 2 of 11 with runners in scoring position.

“I thought everybody did their job, played good defense,” Forbes said. “And we did get some big hits. It’s just the game of baseball, too. Sometimes you need one of those hits that you sting to fall in.”

After hitting home runs in the last two games, it was an emotional realization for Horvath that he may have just played his last college game.

“Just super grateful just to be able to play here for the guy sitting next to me,” Horvath said, straining for words while fighting emotion, referring to Forbes. “Always believing in me, especially in that freshman year. Just incredibly thankful.”

In the first inning, UNC second baseman Jackson Van De Brake hit a liner that went off the left elbow of Iowa right-handed starter Ty Langenberg. Hunter Stokely struck out, and Patrick Alvarez flied out to end the bases-loaded threat.

Carolina made up for it with two outs in the second inning when shortstop Colby Wilkerson walked and right fielder Casey Cook belted a two-run home run to right-center field near where he stole a home run the day before. It was his third homer of the season and first since April 14.

Iowa broke through for the first run off UNC pitching in 12 innings on Raider Tello’s sacrifice fly to right field with one out.

Freshman Cameron Padgett started and tied his career-high by going 4⅓ innings (five hits, three runs, one walk, three strikeouts), but got pulled after giving up a pair of singles to lead off the fifth.

Freshman left-hander Kyle Percival came in to face the left-handed hitting Brennen Dorighi, who hit a three-run homer to right-center to put Iowa up 4–2. Junior right-hander Matt Poston relieved Percival after Tello singled.

“Unfortunately, Kyle hung it, and he made him pay for it,” Forbes said. “Percival is a true freshman. He’s been really good recently against lefties. We thought Cam was getting tired, and they had put two really good swings on Cam.”

With two on and two outs in the sixth inning, freshman Dylan King pinch hit for Alberto Osuna and flied out to right-center in his 11th at-bat of the season.

After Poston gave up one hit, walked one and struck out three in two innings, senior right-hander Kevin Eaise relieved him with runners at first and third. He gave up a sacrifice fly to Kyle Huckstorf, but struck out Braydon Frazier to avert further damage.

Eaise pitched two hitless shutout innings with two walks and two strikeouts, then left-hander Dalton Pence (loser, 4-3) threw 4⅓ shutout innings, allowing three hits and one run with no walks and three strikeouts.

“We never believe we’re out of it with this lineup, and they proved all year they can get us back into pretty much any situation,” Eaise said. “Padgett did a great job starting us off. Pence did a great job coming in after me.”

Langenberg came out in the eighth inning with 122 pitches after junior catcher Tomas Frick and junior first baseman Hunter Stokely led off the inning with singles.

Right-hander Jack Whitlock came in and struck out junior left fielder Patrick Alvarez and junior third baseman Johnny Castagnozzi before King laced a two-run double to right field to slice the deficit to 5–4. It was King’s first game with two at-bats since May 16.

After Horvath’s blast on a 2–0 pitch off of Whitlock, freshman right-hander Will Christophers got the final two outs to send the game to the 10th inning.

Horvath singled with two outs in the 11th and stole second, but Van De Brake grounded out to end the inning.

Dorighi’s single to lead off the 12th was Iowa’s first hit since the seventh inning, but Pence induced two groundouts to get out of the inning.

NOTES — This was the fourth all-time meeting between UNC and Iowa. The No. 1-seed Tar Heels won 5–3 in the 1990 NCAA Northeast Regional in Waterbury, Conn., and the Hawkeyes won 5–4 in Minneapolis, Minn., on Feb. 29, 2020, at the Cambria Classic in the Minnesota Vikings’ stadium and Friday night in Terre Haute. … UNC fell to 1–3 when Padgett starts. Earlier, he started a 12–7 home loss March 28 against Coastal Carolina, an April 18 home 5–3 win over Charlotte and a May 2 home 6–5 loss to Campbell.