University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Maryland
Baseball Falls 12-7 to Maryland
April 6, 2001 | Baseball
April 6, 2001
COLLEGE PARK, Md.- Junior DH Ray Gemmill (Silver Spring, Md.) slammed two homeruns while junior pitcher Ken Beck (Laurel, Md.) tossed 3.1 shutout innings as the Maryland baseball team defeated North Carolina, 12-7, Friday afternoon at Shipley Field. It was a day of firsts for the Terrapins as Beck nailed down his first career win while Maryland skipper Terry Rupp collected his first ACC win with the Terps.
The Maryland offense pounded out 17 hits on the day, the second time in three games the Terps have had 17. Every Maryland starter had at least one hit including sophomore 2B John McCurdy (Crofton, Md.) , who paced the Terps with three hits.
North Carolina got the bats going early, scoring four first inning runs. Jeremy Cleveland doubled to right to plate the Tar Heels* first two runs of the game. Two more extra-base hits, a RBI triple by Sean Farrell and a RBI double from Chad Prosser, gave Carolina a 4-0 lead after a half inning of play.
The Terps scored one run in the bottom of the first before exploding for six runs in the second. The second inning fireworks got started with Gemmill*s first homer of the year, a two-run shot to left, to close the Tar Heel lead to 4-3. McCurdy delivered Maryland*s next run with a RBI double to right-center to score freshman RF Anthony Buffone (Manalapan, N.J.). Later in the inning with two runners on base, senior 3B Steve Oursler (Clinton, Md.) launched his third homerun of the season to left, to put the Terrapins in the lead for good at 7-4. Oursler finished the game 2-for-4 and tied a career-high with four runs batted in.
Carolina scored twice in the third inning off a two-run Chad Maples homerun before Beck came in and shut down the Tar Heels.
The junior righty held the Tar Heels to just one hit over his 3.1 innings of work, the longest outing of his career.
Maryland added single runs in both the fourth and sixth innings before busting the game open in the seventh with three tallies. Gemmill (2-for-4, 2 R, 2RBI) was the hero again for Maryland in the seventh with his towering solo homerun to left. The two-homer game for Gemmill was the first of his career. A sacrifice fly by junior C Kevin McDonald (Rockaway, N.J.) and a RBI single from junior CF Matt Swope (New Carrollton, Md.) accounted for the other two Terrapin runs in the inning. The single for Swope set a new career-high hitting streak at 12 games for the junior.
The win is the first of the year for Maryland in the ACC as the Terps improve to 1-8 in the conference and 9-18 overall. The victory also extends the Terrapins* winning streak to three games. The Tar Heels fall to 19-15 this season and 2-8 in the ACC.
Game two of the series will be played tomorrow at Shipley Field. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
