LSU bats came alive during a long, long Sunday, so the Tigers will live to play another day in the NCAA baseball tournament.

LSU had to win two games to keep their hopes alive and did just that, rallying to beat Wofford 13-6 in the first game then holding off North Carolina 8-4 in the second.

“After we lost (to North Carolina) Saturday, coach said Sunday was going to be our best day of baseball and I think that was the case today,” said pitcher Thatcher Hurst, the surprise pitching star of the second game.

LSU fell behind 5-0 in the first game against Wofford before pouring it on late. In the second game against the UNC  the Tigers struck early and led 8-1 after five innings, but the Tar Heels got the tying run to plate in each of the last two  innings.

“In this tournament you have to have great individual performances by guys that have talent,” head coach Jay Johnson said. “And that’s what we got today in both games because we beat two really good programs here.”

The double dip gave the Tigers six straight wins in elimination games dating back to last year’s College World Series.

“I think they believe in themselves at a high level playing as well as we have for the past month and a half,” Johnson said. “They should believe in themselves.”

There is still work to be done. But it sets up a winner take all game Monday at 5 p.m., against the Tar Heels, the Chapel Hill regional’s top seed and the No. 4 national seed.

The winner advances to the NCAA super regional round — and an LSU victory would be an unexpected bonus as the Tigers would host a super regional this weekend.

The Chapel Hill regional is paired against the Tucson regional and both of the top seeds there have been eliminated.

After struggling for runs in the regional’s first two days, the Tigers’ combined 21 runs in Sunday’s games came on 32 hits.

Light hitting Josh Pearson, whose 3-run homer sparked the eventual rout in the first game, got the Tigers rolling in the second game with a two-run homer in the first inning.

“I think we went into the same approach we just executed the plan. “ Johnson said. “Everybody looked confident, slowed down. And we did a really good job today.”

The pitching really rose to the occasion with a long and dominant relief performance from Herring in the opener against Wofford and a timey start from seldom used Thatcher Hurd in the second game.

Hurd shined in Omaha last year and was the Tigers’ opening night starter this season. But he scuffled early and lost his spot in the rotation.

But Johnson had planned all along to use him for this spot in the regional.

It paid off as the big righthander opened the game with three perfect innings and eventually went 5.2 innings, allowing just two runs on six hits.

“He was feeling it,” North Carolina coach Scott Forbes said. “He had pitches going, he had velocity … he looked like a Friday night starter.”

Hurd turned it over to the bullpen, which wiggled out of one jam after another for the remainder of the game.

The Tar Heels, who stranded 12 base runners, loaded the bases in three of the last four innings but were held to a single run in the sixth and two in the seventh.

“That was huge,” said Hurd. “That’s where the momentum is fully shifting to their dugout and when you get out of there with a zero or a one, I think it sends it into your dugout. That’s what’s so impressive about the guys that came in.”

Gavin Guidry got the game’s final four outs, escaping bases-loaded jams in the eighth and ninth.

He got a strike out after relieving Kader Anderson in the eighth with the bases juiced and two outs.

He was back in the soup, however, in the ninth and giving up a single and two walks in the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate with one out.

But he ended the game with a strike out and a fly ball to deep leftfield.

In the first game, LSU eventually won handily, but not before overcoming a multi-run deficit for the fourth time in six games.

The Tigers had 21 hits, but didn’t take the lead until Jake Brown’s sacrifice fly in the seventh for a 7-6 lead.

LSU broke it open with another run in the seventh, three in the eighth and two more in the ninth.

But it didn’t look good for the Tigers after Wofford played its small to perfection in striking for a 5-0 lead in the first inning.

But Herring, who Johnson had hoped to start in the night game, put out the fire in the first in relief of Nate Ackenhausen and allowed only one run in his career-high 6.1 innings after begging Johnson to let him throw the seventh inning.

He struck out seven without a walk.

Freshman Nate Anderson struck out the side in the eighth and Will Hellmers got the final three outs in the ninth.

Josh Pearson had the biggest hit of the comeback in the fifth with a 2-run homer that got the Tigers within 6-5. Pearson also had two doubles in a 3-for-4 game and finished with four RBIs and four runs scored.

Michael Braswell scored three times with an RBI while going 4-for-5 and Brady Neal drove in three runs and went 3-for-4 after pinch-hitting for DH Hayden Travinski.