Tar Heels oust N.C. State with 7-0 victory

College baseball: North Carolina’s Hobbs Johnson combined with Chris McCue on a five-hitter, and the Tar Heels stayed alive in the College World Series with a 7-0 victory over North Carolina State on Thursday night in Omaha, Neb.

Michael Russell drove in three runs for the No. 1-seeded Tar Heels (59-11), the first on a sacrifice fly that resulted in a close play at the plate to open the scoring in the fourth inning.

Johnson allowed five singles, walked two and struck out six before leaving with one out in the ninth.

N.C. State’s Carlos Rodon started on three days’ rest after throwing 108 pitches in an 8-1 win over Carolina. He gave up two runs on four hits and threw 80 pitches in his five innings.

Carolina must beat UCLA twice – first on Friday and again Saturday – to reach the finals. North Carolina State finished 50-16.

Forlan, Uruguay defeat Nigeria 2-1

Soccer: Diego Forlan celebrated his 100th appearance for Uruguay in style, setting up one goal then scoring the winner in a 2-1 victory over Nigeria in Salvador, Brazil, to move his team within sight of the Confederations Cup semifinals.

Forlan’s decisive goal came in the 51st minute with a sweetly struck left-footed drive as he finished off a swift counterattack.

The play involved all three of the South American champion’s forwards, starting with Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani.

Uruguay and Nigeria each have three points in Group B, but Uruguay will be expected to win its next match against underdog Tahiti, while Nigeria faces World Cup champion Spain.

• Spain routs Tahiti 10-0: World Cup winner Spain routed the Pacific islanders from Tahiti 10-0 at the Confederations Cup in Rio De Janeiro – a result that wasn’t as bad as some had suggested beforehand.

Tahiti coach Eddy Etaeta said he feared Spain might score 15 or 20.

Still, the winning margin was the largest in a Confederations Cup match. The previous record margin for the World Cup run-up tournament was six, when Brazil beat Saudi Arabia 8-2 in 1999 and when Brazil beat Australia 6-0 in 1997.

Fernando Torres, who missed a penalty late in the match, scored four goals. David Villa added three goals, David Silva two and Juan Mata one.

Tahiti was the crowd favorite at the Maracana stadium with Brazilians wildly cheering the underdogs and jeering Spain.

When Spanish midfielder Mata tried to score with a bicycle kick with the score at 4-0, the effort was met with loud booing.

Hoffman shoots 61 for lead at Travelers

Golf: Charley Hoffman shot a first-round 61 – one shot off the course record at TPC River Highlands – at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn.

His 28 on the back nine was the lowest nine holes on the PGA Tour this year, and puts him one shot up on Hunter Mahan, who posted an early 62. Bubba Watson was two strokes back.

Hoffman said he thought he might have a chance to go even lower, and was flirting with 59 after making eagle on 10 and 12, and going to 8-under par with a birdie on 16.

“I knew I had some chances coming in,” he said. “But when it’s said and done, as I displayed last year, 16, 17 and 18 aren’t an easy test. So I was just trying to make some pars coming in.”

Watson finds himself in contention again after winning in 2010 and tying Hoffman as the runner-up a year ago.

He said there is a reason so many familiar names are at the top of the leaderboard.

“These are guys that love this course, that love this tournament, they love Travelers and how they’ve treated us here,” he said. “And so, you’re always going to see pretty much some of the same guys up there because they enjoy this area and this golf course.”

Six golfers were four strokes back.

Video of Clemson vandalism released

Miscellany: Clemson University police have released security camera video of a white pickup truck that investigators believe is linked to the vandalism of one of the school’s most beloved symbols – Howard’s Rock.

The video shows the truck pull up to the fence outside the stadium near the rock about 11:20 p.m. June 2. Two men get out. A second video with a timestamp about 10 minutes later shows two men walking and dancing around outside the pickup before driving off.

Police also released a still picture of the pickup.

The rock’s glass case was damaged and a chunk of it was broken off.

Clemson football players rub the rock named for former football coach Frank Howard as they run down the stadium’s hill before the start of every football game.