Tournament Most Outstanding Player Rich Racobaldo went 4-for-5 and put Mount Olive ahead to stay with a two-out RBI single in the top of the fifth as the top-seeded Trojans defeated third-seeded USC-Aiken 8-3 on Monday at Mount Olive.

The nationally No. 1-ranked Trojans (54-6) claimed the title of the South Atlantic Regional with the victory and advanced to the eight-team World Series.

Racobaldo batted .538 (14-for-26) in six games at the regional. Three of his four hits in the championship game came with two outs.

Monday's contest was the completion of Sunday's suspended game, which was halted in the top of the eighth inning because of severe weather.

The eight-team National Finals begin Saturday in Sauget, Ill., just outside of St. Louis.

The Trojans play their first game Sunday against Ouachita Baptist (Ark.), which defeated co-national No. 1 Delta State (Miss.) 8-1 Monday to capture the South Central Regional title.

USC Aiken (47-17) led 2-1 after three innings, but the Trojans took the lead for good in the fifth.

Joseph Westbrook keyed a two-run rally for Mount Olive with two outs in the top of the fifth, singling up the middle and advancing to third on a wild pitch and a passed ball. David Cooper's wind-aided opposite-field double to the left-field wall brought home Westbrook with the tying run, and Racobaldo's single gave the Trojans their first lead of the game at 3-2.

Mount Olive added single runs in the seventh and eighth and three runs in the ninth to take an 8-2 lead.

NOTES

POSEY, WHITE TOP ALL-ACC: Florida State catcher Buster Posey was named player of the year in the ACC, and North Carolina sophomore Alex White was named pitcher of the year, the league announced Monday.

The All-ACC team, voted on by the league coaches, featured eight players from Miami, six on the first team.

North Carolina and N.C. State landed two each on the first team -- relief pitcher Jimmy Gillheeney and starting pitcher Clayton Shunick from N.C. State and outfielder Tim Fedroff and White from UNC.

The second team included UNC's Dustin Ackley, Tim Federowicz, Kyle Seager and Rob Wooten. N.C. State's Matt Payne and Duke's Alex Hassan were also on the second team.

Jim Morris of Miami was the coach of the year, and the Hurricanes' Chris Hernandez was the freshman of the year.

The entire team is listed in the Scoreboard, page 2C.

KEMP HONORED: East Carolina senior Corey Kemp, who has a 3.32 grade-point average in communications, has been named to the Conference USA All-Academic team.