CARY - After 10 innings, a season-high-tying four double plays, three hits and three errors (by one player) for North Carolina on Senior Day, it may have seemed anticlimactic that the Tar Heels beat Florida State 2-1 on a walk.

"Not for us, it wasn't," UNC coach Mike Fox said, grinning Sunday at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.

After all, when ball four was called on sophomore Mark Fleury's bases-loaded at-bat, it secured the No. 2 Tar Heels' second victory in the three-game series -- key because it was against the third-ranked team in the country, and because of what's yet to come.

UNC reliever Rob Wooten (3-1) picked up his second win of the weekend. FSU starter Elih Villanueva (4-2) got the loss, despite allowing only two runs on two hits and pitching into the 10th inning.

"I don't want to put a great deal of emphasis on this game today, but I knew deep down that this was a big game for us because of what we have to do the last two series at Virginia and at [top-ranked] Miami," Fox said. "This is one we really needed. I didn't tell the players that, but it's kind of a regional, super-regional kind of atmosphere, there was a lot at stake."

The series pitted the best pitching team in the country (UNC had a 2.15 ERA) against the second-best hitting team in the nation (FSU's batting average was .346).

The result: "Pitching beats good hitting any day, at any level," Wooten said.

Indeed, a day after UNC's pitchers allowed a season-high 19 hits, they got back to their miserly ways.

In the top of the third inning, FSU's Mike McGee reached second base on the first of three errors by UNC shortstop Garrett Gore. Stephen Cardullo then ripped a double down the first-base line to bring home McGee and give the Seminoles a 1-0 lead.

It was the only score Carolina's pitchers -- and defense -- would allow.

UNC (38-8, 18-5 ACC) tied it in the bottom of the seventh when second baseman Kyle Seager singled to center field, bringing home Chad Flack, who got on base after being hit by a pitch.

The Tar Heels' fourth double play of the game helped leave FSU's Tyler Holt stranded in the top of the 10th.

In the bottom of the 10th, Flack walked, then FSU (35-7, 19-5) brought in reliever John Gast, a freshman who underwent Tommy John surgery after high school and had made only two previous appearances this season.

He allowed Seager a single down the right-field line, then intentionally walked Tim Federowicz before Fleury, the designated hitter, came up to bat with the bases loaded.

"Coach Fox told me before the at-bat, 'this guy's more nervous than you are,' '' Fleury said. "And I said, 'I'm not nervous.' ... I just tried to suck in the crowd a little bit, slow everything down, and let him do the work."

And make the mistake, he did -- allowing the Tar Heels to walk away with the victory.

First baseman Dustin Ackley recorded UNC's only other hit of the game. Flack, a senior, played his 245th game on Senior Day, breaking Chad Prosser's school record of 244.

The Tar Heels will have an eight-day break before their next game because of exams. At least they can halt on a positive -- even if a somewhat anticlimactic -- note.

"These were two really good teams who played hard and made some really good plays," Fox said, "and we were fortunate to get a couple there at the end."