University of North Carolina Athletics
Baseball Goes On The Road Again
April 27, 2000 | Baseball
April 27, 2000
No. 18/18/14 NORTH CAROLINA (36-11, 8-10 ACC) at DUKE (14-33, 4-14 ACC)
April 27-29, 2000
Jack Coombs Field, Durham, N.C.
NOTE: ALL GAMES LIVE ON TARHEELBLUE
CAROLINA QUICK FACTS
Probable Starters:
Thurs.-Ryan Snare, LHP (3.72 ERA, 7-1, 69 K)
Fri.-Chris Elmore, LHP (4.04 ERA, 6-1, 51 K)
Sat.-Ryan Earey, RHP (4.12 ERA, 4-1, 42 K)
Head Coach: Mike Fox (UNC '78)
Fox's Record at UNC: 77-29 (second year)
Fox's Overall Record: 617-170-4 (16th year)
Assistant Coaches: Chad Holbrook
Roger Williams
Scott Forbes
DUKE QUICK FACTS
Probable Starters:
Thurs.-Patrick Hannaway, RHP (7.34 ERA, 1-4, 28 K)
Fri.-Ryan Caradonna, RHP (5.32 ERA, 5-8, 49 K)
Sat.-Kevin Perry, LHP (5.73 ERA, 3-5, 21 K)
Head Coach: Bill Hillier (Otterbein '79)
Hillier's Record at Duke: 14-33 (first year)
Hillier's Overall Record: 111-204 (sixth year)
Assistant Coaches: Erik Filipek
Bill Hillier Jr.
Jason White
TAR HEELS BATTLE DUKE IN DURHAM
Carolina, 1-8 in ACC road games, travels to Durham for a three-game game set with Duke at Jack Coombs Field. The Tar Heels have won seven straight games over the Blue Devils and hold a 145-87-2 advantage in the all-time series, which dates back to 1891. Carolina has not lost a series at Duke since 1994, when the Blue Devils won all three from UNC.
Without any mid-week games this week, Carolina has not played since last weekend when Virginia took two of three from the Tar Heels in Charlottesville. Plagued by close road losses in conference play this year, Carolina dropped the series opener 6-5, before bouncing back with a 5-4 victory on Saturday. The Cavaliers clinched the series with a 10-6 win on Sunday. Carolina surrendered a season-high 19 hits to Virginia in that loss.
CAROLINA EYES THIRD STRAIGHT 40-WIN SEASON
With 36 wins to date in the 2000 season, Carolina is closing in on 40 wins for the third consecutive year. The only other time in school history that the Tar Heels have posted three-straight 40-win seasons was from 1983-85 when All-Americas B.J. Surhoff and Scott Bankhead as well as current UNC assistant Roger Williams helped pave the way for a 126-40-1 record over three years.
ROAD WOES CONTINUE AT VIRGINIA
Carolina's struggles in ACC road games continued April 21-23 in Charlottesville. After dropping three straight games at Georgia Tech and Wake Forest, Virginia took two of three from Carolina last weekend to drop Carolina to 1-8 in ACC road games. Five of those losses have been by just one run. The Tar Heels, who swept Maryland and won two of three from both NC State and then-No. 1 Clemson at Boshamer Stadium this year, are 8-10 overall in league play.
HEELS ARE HITTING AT RECORD PACE
One reason for Carolina's success this year has been a balanced and consistent offensive attack. In fact, Carolina's .328 team batting average through 47 games is on pace to be the best in school history. Carolina posted an all-time best .322 team average in 1984. In addition, UNC has hit 58 home runs, compared to 34 by its opponents. Twelve different Tar Heels have hit homers this year, led by Ryan Earey with 10, Tyrell Godwin with nine and Sean Farrell with eight. Earey and Farrell both have a pair of two-home run games this year, while Godwin had two homers, including one grand slam, in the April 18 victory at East Carolina.
FOX GETS 75TH WIN AT EAST CAROLINA
Second-year head coach Mike Fox, a 1978 UNC graduate and former baseball letterwinner, has led the Tar Heels to a 77-29 record, including a school-best 21-0 start this year and a 16-0 start to the 1999 campaign, since returning to his alma mater in May of 1998. With Carolina's three-game sweep of UCLA Feb. 18-20, Fox became the quickest Tar Heel skipper to reach the 50-win mark in history.
Bill Fetzer, Carolina's head coach from 1921-25, previously held that distinction, leading UNC to a 50-16-4 mark in his first 70 games at the helm. In Carolina's 8-2 win at East Carolina on Tuesday, Fox also became the fastest UNC skipper to get to the 75-win mark. Mike Roberts, Walter Rabb and Bunn Hearn are the only other coaches in Carolina history to post at least 75 wins.
CLOSE LOSSES CONTINUE TO FRUSTRATE HEELS
After starting the season with a record 21-game winning streak, Carolina has gone 15-11 to stand 36-11 overall, 8-10 in the ACC. Eight of Carolina's 11 losses have been by three runs or less, including six by just one run. Only two losses have been by more than five runs. Last weekend, Virginia broke a 5-5 tie in the series opener with an unearned run in the bottom of the eighth to take a 6-5 win over the Tar Heels.
In Winston-Salem April 7-9, Carolina dropped a 9-7 decision to Wake Forest in the series opener and lost the next two games 9-8 and 4-3 respectively. The Tar Heels had the tying run at third base in the 9-8 loss on April 8 and UNC again had a runner on base in the ninth inning before surrendering a 4-3 game to the Demon Deacons on April 9. In mid March, Carolina dropped three one-run games in five days. Georgia Tech ended Carolina's 21-game winning streak on March 17 with a 5-4 victory in Atlanta. Two days later, the Yellow Jackets completed a series sweep with an 8-7 win and Towson handed UNC its fourth consecutive loss with a 9-8 win on March 21.
GREENBERG STAYS ON FIRE
Freshman Adam Greenberg is off to a sensational start to his UNC career, leading the team in batting average (.396), hits (72), triples (6), stolen bases (23) and multi-hit games (25). He also has three leadoff homers this season, most recently on April 22 at Virginia. He has started 45 games, missing only the Penn State doubleheader with a sore hamstring.
Greenberg carried a team-high 21-game hitting streak into the Clemson series (April 7-9), before going 0-for-7 in the first two games of the series with the Tigers. But he followed that up with a seven-game hit streak where he was 16-for-30 (.533) at the plate. Greenberg's six triples rank in a third-place tie for the most ever in a single season at Carolina behind Chad Holbrook's seven in 1993 and Rip Ryan's eight in 1949.
ELMORE HONORED AT UNC ALL-SPORTS BANQUET
Senior Chris Elmore was one of the big winners Monday night at Carolina's annual all-sports dinner at the Smith Center. Elmore was the male recipient of the Mildred McCaskill Award, which is given each year by the University to the senior who represents excellence in athletics, academics and community service. Elmore was also one of six student-athletes honored by the Atlantic Coast Conference for his community service, and he was baseball's winner of the Athletic Director's Scholar-Athlete Award.
TAR HEELS DOWN TERPS WITH THREE-GAME SWEEP
Carolina used 44 runs and 47 hits over three days to sweep Maryland April 14-16 at Boshamer Stadium. Ryan Snare went the distance, striking out eight and giving up just one earned run, in picking up the win in Friday's 8-2 victory to open the series. The Terps led 2-1 through the top half of the seventh, but three runs in the bottom of the seventh and four more in the eighth propelled Carolina to the win. Carolina again got behind on Saturday, having to dig out of an 8-1 third-inning hole to post a 13-11 win. Matt McCay, who was 3-for-4 with a career-high six RBIs, put the Heels ahead for good with a grand slam in the fourth inning. Carolina's offense was running on all cylinders in Sunday's 23-8 win. Carolina got five runs in the first and led 9-0 through three, while Chris Elmore allowed just one run in seven innings for the win. Tyrell Godwin, Ryan Earey, Sean Farrell and Adam Shearin all homered for the Tar Heels.
STREAKING HEELS
Current UNC hitting streaks (minimum three games):
Tyrell Godwin: 7 games (has raised batting average 31 points over past seven games with 16-for-29 (.552) hitting ... has scored 10 runs and knocked in 13 in past seven games ... has seven steals in last seven games.)
Chad Prosser: 3 games (6-for-9 (.667) ovr past three games, including 4-for-4 day last Sunday at Virginia ... hit second home run of the season in 5-4 win over UVa on Saturday ... has hit in seven of the past eight games and is 14-for-25 (.560) over that stretch.)
Other hitting notables:
Dan Moylan has hit safely in nine of the past 10 games and has raised his batting average 34 points in that stretch after hitting 16-for-36 (.444) during that stretch.)
Adam Greenberg has three leadoff homers this year, including in last weekend's 5-4 win at Virginia.
TAR HEEL PITCHERS HAVE SEVEN SHUTOUTS IN 2000
After finishing eighth in the nation in 1999 with a 3.73 team ERA, Carolina's pitching staff has been solid in 2000, especially considering the loss of first-round draft picks Kyle Snyder and Mike Bynum from last year's rotation. The Tar Heels have a 4.40 team ERA through 47 games and have posted seven shutout wins. Carolina has not had that many shutouts in an entire season since blanking seven opponents in 1978.
CAROLINA TAKES FIRST SERIES FROM CLEMSON SINCE 1990
Carolina took two of three games from Clemson, ranked No. 1 in the nation at the time by Collegiate Baseball, March 31-April 2 in Chapel Hill. After dropping three straight games to Georgia Tech (March 17-19) to open league play, Carolina took two of three from NC State in Chapel Hill (March 24-26) and won the series with the Tigers to move to 4-5 in the conference.
Carolina had not won a series with Clemson since the 1990 season. Ryan Snare had a stellar outing in the series opener to propel Carolina to a 6-0 win. Snare allowed just two hits while striking out seven and walking four over 6.2 scoreless innings for the victory. Ryan Earey and Derrick Depriest combined for 2.1 hitless innings to seal the win and send Clemson to its first ACC loss of the season. After being held hitless into the fifth inning by Clemson ace Scott Berney, Carolina got runs in the fifth and sixth innings and broke open the game with a four-run eighth. On Saturday, Carolina committed a season-high six errors and fell 10-2, but UNC responded with a 5-2 win on Sunday to clinch the series. Chris Elmore, Earey and DePriest combined to give up just five Clemson hits and two unearned runs in the victory.
ANOTHER RECORD START IN 2000
For the second year in a row under head coach Mike Fox, Carolina opened the season with a record start. A year after posting its best start in school history as well as the all-time best UNC winning streak with a 16-0 start in 1999, Carolina broke those records with a 21-0 start in 2000. The 21-game UNC winning streak ranks as the second best of all-time in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Clemson's 26-0 start in 1977 is the both the best start to a season and the longest winning streak in league history. Of Carolina's 21 wins to open the 2000 campaign, seven came against ranked opponents, including a three-game sweep of then-No. 2 UCLA in Westwood, a sweep of Central Florida, Rice and defending national champion Miami at the season-opening ACC/Disney Blast, and a win over in-state rival East Carolina.
TAR HEELS PEAK AT NO. 2 IN NATIONAL POLLS
Carolina, ranked No. 14 this week by Baseball Weekly, spent back-to-back weeks (March 6 and 13) ranked No. 2 in the nation by both Collegiate Baseball and Baseball Weekly, which was Carolina's all-time highest national ranking. Carolina spent two weeks ranked No. 3 last year by Baseball America (March 15 and 22).
COMEBACKS KEY SUCCESS IN 2000
Carolina's ability to bounce back from big deficits has played a key role in its success this season. Carolina has 17 wins this season that have come after the Tar Heels have trailed at one point in the game. Most notably, Carolina went into the ninth inning of the Feb. 18 game at UCLA trailing 13-4 before scoring 13 runs in the top half of that inning to prevail 17-13 at Jackie Robinson Stadium. Two days later, Carolina trailed 6-0 after two innings to the Bruins, but an 11-run fourth inning put the Tar Heels ahead for good as they prevailed in that rain-shortened game 12-11.
Carolina also faced a 2-0 deficit heading into the bottom of the 10th inning in the second game of the Penn State doubleheader (Feb. 13), but three runs in the bottom half of that inning was the difference in a 3-2 UNC victory. Last weekend, Maryland held a 2-1 lead through the top half of the seventh before eventually falling 8-2 to Carolina, while the Terps got ahead 8-1 in the third inning of Saturday's contest before Carolina rallied for a 13-11 victory.
SNARE HAVING MEMORABLE JUNIOR SEASON
Junior left-hander Ryan Snare has been outstanding on the mound in 2000, especially since suffering his first defeat of the year, a 5-4 loss at Georgia Tech. In notching back-to-back wins against NC State (March 25) and Clemson (March 31), Snare posted 13 strikeouts and allowed just one unearned run. Against the Wolfpack, Snare allowed one unearned run on six hits ? all singles ? over 7.0 innings while striking out six batters for the victory. On March 31, Snare sent the top-ranked Tigers to their first ACC loss, giving up just two hits while striking out seven over 6.2 innings for the win. On April 14, Snare pitched Carolina's second complete game of the year in handing Maryland an 8-2 loss. Snare allowed just one earned run over nine innings while striking out eight to improve to 7-1 on the season. In Carolina's 6-5 loss last Friday at Virginia, the Cavs managed four earned runs against Snare, but he struck out seven and got a no decision in the game.
DEPRIEST STAYS SHARP OUT OF THE BULLPEN
Derrick DePriest is currently in second place in the Carolina record book for all-time appearances with 114. The senior right-hander, who last year led the nation with a 1.71 ERA, has appeared in 25 games this year. He struggled in outings at Wake Forest on April 7 and 8 but still leads the team with a 1.55 ERA. He has 46 strikeouts compared to just 20 walks. After surrendering eight runs in two games versus the Demon Deacons, DePriest has not allowed an earned run in his last seven outings. Over those 12.2 innings he has struck out nine batters, including April 19 against UNC Charlotte when he struck out the side in the ninth to seal the Carolina victory.
ELMORE BOUNCES BACK FROM FIRST LOSS IN THREE YEARS
Senior lefty Chris Elmore, who had not lost a decision since April 19, 1997, took the loss in a 9-8 defeat at Wake Forest on April 8. He was a hard-luck loser in a game that began on Saturday but was suspended for a day because of rain. The Tar Heels trailed 3-0 with Elmore on the mound in the bottom of the second inning when rain forced the suspension of the game. The two teams resumed play on Sunday with new pitchers, but when Carolina's rally fell short, Elmore was credited with the loss. He has bounced back with wins over UNC Wilmington (April 11), Maryland (April 16) and at Virginia (April 22) to move to 6-1 on the season and 16-3 in his career. His .842 career winning percentage is the second highest all-time at UNC behind only All-America Scott Bankhead.
UNC PASSES 2,000-WIN PLATEAU AGAINST SETON HALL
Carolina celebrated its 2,000th all-time win early in the season by defeating Seton Hall 8-0 on Feb. 25. In 111 seasons, the Tar Heels have posted a 2,025-1,202-36 all-time record and are coming off their most productive decade in history. Carolina won 379 games in the 1990s and posted four seasons with more than 40 victories.
