University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Richmond
Tar Heels Top Richmond 2-1 For 20th Straight Win
March 12, 2000 | Baseball
March 12, 2000
Chapel Hill, N.C. -- Freshmen Adam Greenberg and Russ Adams provided the offense and a trio of Tar Heel pitchers combined for 12 strikeouts as the second-ranked North Carolina baseball team outlasted Richmond 2-1 Sunday afternoon in a pitchers' duel at Boshamer Stadium. The streaking Tar Heels have won a UNC-record 20 straight games and their 20-0 start is the best in school history. Richmond falls to 10-7 with the loss.
The Spiders jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first. Matt Craig drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on a Rich Smith sacrifice bunt and scored on a Josh Lamberg two-out single to left field for the early advantage. But the Tar Heels, who have trailed at some point in 10 of their 20 victories this year, tied the game 1-1 when Greenberg led off the third inning with a home run to right center field, his third long ball in the past five games.
Richmond threatened in the sixth, loading the bases before Ryan Earey came out of the bullpen to strike out Spider centerfielder Dan Phipps on four pitches to end the inning. Earey struck out three more Richmond batters over 1.2 innings to earn his second win of the year.
Carolina took the lead in the bottom of the sixth. After leading off the inning with his second of three singles of the afternoon, Adams stole second base and later scored from third when a Mike Smith pitch got past catcher Josh Lamberg to give Carolina the run it needed for the 2-1 win. Adams finished the game 3-for-4 and he stole two bases.
ut Richmond would not go away in the late innings. Derrick DePriest, who has been nursing a sore right elbow, made his first relief appearance in nearly two weeks and pitched a stellar 1.2 innings for his fourth save of the season. With runners on first and second and just one out he struck out back-to-back Spider batters to end the eighth inning. Then in the ninth, with runners again on first and second with only one out, DePriest threw out Matt Craig on a grounder down the third base line and finished the game by striking out Jeremy Perella.
While he did not get the decision, Chris Elmore pitched an excellent 5.2 innings as the UNC starter. He gave up just one run on three hits while striking out five Richmond batters. Meanwhile, Richmond starter Mike Smith went the distance but fell to 4-2 with the loss. He allowed eight hits and struck out five Carolina batters.
The Tar Heels close out a 12-game homestand Tuesday at 1 p.m. against Pace University before traveling to Atlanta for their ACC-opening series next weekend with Georgia Tech.
