University of North Carolina Athletics
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Georgia Tech
Baseball Outlasts No. 10 Georgia Tech, 11-10
May 13, 2001 | Baseball
May 13, 2001
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The University of North Carolina baseball team scored an 11-10 win over Georgia Tech Sunday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium to conclude its regular season. The Tar Heels (31-24, 9-15 ACC) head into next week's ACC Tournament having won five of their last six games, including three over ranked teams. Georgia Tech concludes its regular-season 39-16, 13-11 in the conference.
Carolina got another strong start from Scott Autrey and 15 hits -- including three each from Adam Greenberg and Ron Braun -- to take the three-game series, two games to one, from the 10th-ranked Yellow Jackets. Autrey (3-3) continued his late-season surge on the mound, holding the Yellow Jackets scoreless until the sixth. Tech's three runs in the inning ended a 19.0-inning scoreless streak by Autrey, who held Duke without a run in his final 4.2 innings on April 20, pitched a complete-game shutout on April 29 at Clemson and went the first 5.1 innings against the Yellow Jackets before surrendering a run.
Tech had its opportunities, but stranded a season-high 17 base runners, including three in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
Greenberg tripled to right-center field to drive in the game's first two runs in the bottom of the third. Sean Farrell knocked Greenberg home from third with a bunt single to give the Heels a 3-0 lead through three innings.
Ron Braun doubled off the wall in left-center field and came home on a Chad Prosser single in the fourth, as Carolina extended its lead to 4-0.
After loading the bases in both the fourth and fifth innings without managing a run, Tech finally got on the board with three in the sixth. Brad Stockton's RBI single scored Tech's first run, while Matthew Boggs and Richard Lewis also drove in runs to pull the Yellow Jackets to within 4-3. Before the inning was done though, Tech again loaded the bases, but Whitley Benson came out of the bullpen and got Jason Basil to foul out to first baseman Ryan Blake.
Blake knocked in UNC's fifth run of the afternoon in the sixth, and the Tar Heels followed with a five-run seventh to extend their lead to 10-3. Ralph Roberts had an RBI single, Jason Howell drove in two runs with a pinch-hit double, Chad Prosser's fielder's choice scored the fourth run of the inning and Blake added a run-scoring double to left in the seventh.
Georgia Tech answered with five runs of their own in the top of the eighth. The Yellow Jackets drew four walks and had RBI singles from Basil and Stockton in closing the gap to 10-8. But Howell got Mark Teixeira to ground into a fielder's choice to end the inning and preserve the two-run UNC lead.
In the bottom half of the eighth, Greenberg singled and scored for UNC's 11th and final run, which would be just enough to hold off the Yellow Jackets, who got a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth from Derik Goffena for the final 11-10 margin.
Georgia Tech starter Kyle Bakker allowed four runs on seven hits over 4.0 innings for the loss, his first of the season, to fall to 4-1.
With Sunday's win, Carolina finished the regular season in a sixth-place tie with Virginia and NC State in the ACC standings. Carolina will open the ACC Tournament Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. versus third-seeded Wake Forest.
