OMAHA, Neb. — North Carolina is the only team that has remained true to form through the first four games of the College World Series.

Some of the biggest — Miami, Florida State, Rice and LSU — are facing the prospect of going home early.

Meanwhile, Georgia (42-23-1) and Stanford (40-22-2) meet Monday night and upstart Fresno State (43-29) plays the Tar Heels (55-12) on Tuesday in games that will determine the front-runners in Brackets 1 and 2.

Monday's elimination game pits the top-seeded Hurricanes (42-23-1) against Atlantic Coast Conference rival FSU (54-13), and Rice (47-14) and LSU (48-18-1) will meet on Tuesday.

LSU coach Paul Mainieri, whose team lost 8-4 to North Carolina on Sunday, said he's not surprised at the results of the opening games.

"Everybody here is really good. All eight teams, I think, are outstanding," he said. "Someone has to lose the game. Today we came up a little short. Rice had a rough day and yesterday's games developed the way they did. In today's day and age of college baseball, anybody can beat anybody on any given day. It just depends on how you play that day."

Fresno State, the first No. 4 regional seed to make it to the CWS, hit four home runs en route to a stunning 17-5 win over Rice.

The Bulldogs helped set the tone for what has been a CWS with a strong offensive flavor so far.

The 15 home runs through four games were the most since 19 were hit the first two days in 2001. The 65 runs were the most since 83 were scored in the first round in '01.

No. 2-seeded North Carolina, however, managed to win with small ball.

The Tar Heels didn't need to do anything fancy with Alex White containing LSU's potent attack after Michael Hollander and Matt Clark homered leading off the first and second innings. White allowed only two more singles before leaving in the eighth inning.