It's a moment baseball players rehearse to themselves all the time.

Ninth inning, two outs, full count, and you're down a run to the best team in the nation.

Rob Yodice, Penn State's junior catcher, who was the designated hitter, was 11 pitches deep against North Carolina reliever Tim Federowicz, and if the 12th were a strike, a chance to defeat the No. 1 Tar Heels would be just that, a missed opportunity.

But on that 12th pitch, after a series of fastballs and changeups, Federowicz made a mistake. Yodice felt the sweet spot of the bat make contact on a low and inside fastball, and he knew it was crushed.

The ball sailed over the fence in right-center, and pushed the Penn State baseball team into extra innings, where it would eventually win, 3-2, as catcher Joe Blackburn's grounder to Tar Heel shortstop Josh Horton was bobbled and outfielder Garrett Field scored from third.

"It was a great feeling," Yodice said. "That is something every kid dreams about. My thing is I just contributed at the right time. It was a total team effort. Guys battled their butts off."

After defeating UNC on Saturday, the Nittany Lions (2-5) became the first team to top the Tar Heels (11-1) this season. Even though Penn State lost the first and last games of the series, 8-4 and 5-4, respectively, there are moral victories.

Penn State head coach Robbie Wine would have liked to win the series or sweep, just like he would have rather not seen three errors yesterday, including a dropped pop-fly in the outfield, but at least he knows his team can compete with the nation's elite.

In the yesterday's game, Penn State was down, 5-1, going into the sixth inning. Wine sensed some resilience, as the Lions closed the gap to the prior day's margin going into the ninth, but they have a long way to go to win consistently in that situation.

"What we found out is that North Carolina is a very good baseball team," Wine said. "If nothing else, it puts it all into perspective. Now we know where we have to get to."

UNC was undefeated in its last 16 games at home. After Yodice homered, Wine only worried about whom to put in to pitch the 10th inning. Now the score was tied, and there were greater matters to worry about than celebration.

Closer Drew O'Neil went on to finish off two innings of scoreless relief for starting pitcher Craig Clark, who surrendered two runs during eight innings of work. Clark's arm was sore yesterday after a 100-plus pitch count, but Wine was more impressed with the performance mentally than physically.

In the third inning, Clark gave up a home run to UNC's Seth Williams before pitching shutout ball for the next five innings.

"It was a total team effort," Clark said. "We put it all together, and that's what happens when we do it. We wanted to beat them every game. Winning all of them would have been awesome, but we are more than happy with the way we played."

Yodice did have a few regrets after the series, especially after an 0-for-3 effort yesterday, because he said "imagine what would have happened if we were working on all cylinders."

Even after a big swing of the bat, Yodice is left wanting more.

"This weekend really helped us as a team confidence-wise," Yodice said. "I would have loved to take the series here ... I just got a pitch, took it out. It's one of those things."