OMAHA, Neb. — The College World Series game Thursday night between North Carolina and LSU was suspended because of rain and will be resumed Friday evening.

North Carolina led 2-0 with one out in the top of the first inning when rain and lightning moved into the area and play was stopped at 6:27.

After a delay of 3 hours, 5 minutes, the decision was made to resume this evening.

Games originally scheduled for today — Georgia against Stanford and Fresno State against the winner of the North Carolina-LSU game — will be moved to Saturday.

LSU starter Blake Martin struggled for the short time he was on the mound. He gave up a single, a double, a walk and hit two batters with pitches. He was 0-1 against Garrett Gore with the bases loaded when play was halted.

"I'd like to announce that Mike Fox has agreed to give us a mulligan and we can start the game over tomorrow," LSU coach Paul Mainieri joked as Fox sat next to him at a news conference. "Didn't you agree to that?"

"No," the North Carolina coach deadpanned.

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Mainieri said he didn't know who would pitch today but that it was unlikely he would go back to Martin.

Matt Harvey was scheduled to start for Carolina on Thursday. Fox said he would talk with pitching coach Scott Forbes Thursday night before deciding whether he'll go with Harvey today.

Thunderstorms had been forecast for Thursday evening, and a line of showers was moving toward Omaha at game time.

"I wish the game had never started," Mainieri said. "I'm not second-guessing their decision. I'm sure they made the decision they thought was right. But somebody had told me they thought the rain was going to start within a half-hour or 45 minutes of game time, and no baseball coach wants to start a baseball knowing that his starting pitcher is going to have to deal with that. On the other hand, how do you not start a game when it's not raining?"

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