University of North Carolina Athletics
Baseball Opens ACC Season With Maryland
March 15, 2002 | Baseball
March 15, 2002
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| Ryan Blake and the Tar Heels host Maryland this weekend. |
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After posting a 7-8 mark in the first month of the season, Carolina opens its Atlantic Coast Conference season this weekend with three games against Maryland at Boshamer Stadium. Game times are Friday at 3 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
The Tar Heels are 104-49-2 all-time against the Terps and have won five straight games over Maryland at Boshamer Stadium. UNC's last home loss to Maryland came on April 7, 1996 when the Terps beat Carolina 11-6 in seven innings. Despite scoring 35 runs on 44 hits over three games last year, UNC lost two of three to Maryland at College Park.
Carolina is led by preseason All-America Russ Adams, who leads the Tar Heels with a .414 batting average and has been on a tear of late. Adams has tied his career high by hitting in a team-best nine straight games since Feb. 26 and is 15-for-23 (.652) in his last five games. He had a career-high six RBIs on a career-high-tying four hits at Old Dominion on March 5 and was 8-for-13 (.615) in last weekend's Auburn series. He also has an ACC-best 18 steals on 20 attempts.
Carolina is looking to avert a slow start in ACC play after opening the 2001 conference season 0-7, the worst ACC start in school history. The Tar Heels are 34-38 overall in regular-season ACC games under fourth-year head coach Mike Fox and 6-3 against Maryland since 1998.
"It's very important for us to get off to a good start in the league this year," said UNC head coach Mike Fox. "We'd rather try a new approach this year after starting so slow last year. Maryland has been red hot and we haven't, so it will be interesting to see how we respond to this challenge. It's almost like you start a second season when the ACC begins. We had our pre-ACC schedule and now we have to be ready to face the tough teams we have in this conference."
UNC'S PROBABLE PITCHING ROTATION
Friday: Scott Autrey, RHP (0-1, 5.23 ERA)
Saturday: Garry Bakker, RHP (1-1, 3.38 ERA)
Sunday: Daniel Moore, LHP (1-0, 9.16 ERA)
GREENBERG PUTTING TOGETHER STELLAR JUNIOR SEASON
After a solid but unspectacular sophomore season, junior Adam Greenberg is playing with the form that earned him ACC Rookie of the Year honors in 2000. Greenberg, who has started 133 of UNC's 135 games over the past three seasons in center field, ranks second on the team with a .344 batting average and he leads the Tar Heels with seven doubles and four triples. His third-inning triple on Wednesday versus High Point was the 14th of his career, tying current assistant coach Chad Holbrook for the school record in triples.
Greenberg, who has eight stolen bases in nine attempts, also has three home runs, including two leadoff homers. Greenberg had a leadoff homer against California on March 7, and on March 10 against Auburn he sent the game's first pitch over the right field fence for his fifth career leadoff homer. He added another bomb in that 11-5 loss to the Tigers for the first multi-homer game of his career. Greenberg has hit safely in seven straight games. He has a pair of hits in six of those games.
OFFENSE SHOWS STEADY IMPROVEMENT
Since batting .192 in the season-opening series with Seton Hall, Carolina's team batting average has steadily climbed and is .287 heading into this weekend's series with Maryland. Carolina has at least 10 hits in five straight games, including a season-high 21 hits in a 23-3 rout of Old Dominion on March 5. Carolina's 23 runs in that game were its most since the 23-9 win over James Madison in last year's season-opener.
TAR HEELS HAVE ADDED POWER IN 2002
One year after hitting just 30 home runs as a team, the lowest HR output since hitting 29 in 1978, Carolina has 20 homers through 15 games in 2002. Sean Farrell, Ron Braun and Chris Maples each have four home runs, while Ryan Blake and Adam Greenberg have three apiece. Farrell, Blake, Greenberg and Maples have all had two-homer games this season, including on Wednesday vs. High Point when Maples had home runs in consecutive at bats for the second time in his career. Maples also hit home runs in back-to-back at bats last year at Maryland on April 8. Blake had home runs in consecutive at bats on March 3 against California.
Carolina also has 42 doubles and eight triples for 70 extra base hits in just 15 games, compared to 30 extra base hits by its opponents.
THE LOSSES HAVE BEEN CLOSE
An inability to hold on to late leads has plagued the Tar Heels in seven of its eight losses. While UNC scored six runs over the final three innings to rally for a 7-5 win in the season-opener against Seton Hall, the Tar Heels have not had as much good fortune in their tight games since. Carolina dropped a 10-inning game on Feb. 16 to Seton Hall after leading 2-1 heading into the eight inning, while the Pirates also prevailed on Feb. 17 after the two teams entered the ninth inning tied 3-3. Georgia erased an 8-7, eighth-inning Carolina lead to win 10-8 on Feb. 22, and Cal scored two wins against the Tar Heels last weekend in Chapel Hill despite trailing entering the seventh inning both times. Carolina's frustrations continued last weekend at Auburn, with Carolina holding a 5-3 lead in the eighth inning of the 6-5 loss on March 8 and a 5-0 lead after the top of the first in a 7-5 loss on March 9.
PITCHING MUCH IMPROVED FROM A YEAR AGO
One year after UNC's young and inexperienced pitching staff posted a 5.90 team ERA and walked 289 batters compared to just 315 strikeouts, the Tar Heels have shown tremendous improvement on the mound in 2002. Daniel Moore leads the team with 27 strikeouts compared to just nine walks in 18.2 innings. Scott Autrey is close behind with 22 K's in 20.2 innings, including a career-high eight strikeouts on March 8 at Auburn.
As a staff, the Tar Heels have struck out 10 or more batters in seven of 15 games this season, already two better than last year's total of five in 57 games. In the second game of the March 1 doubleheader with California, Moore and Chris Maples combined to strike out 15 batters, the most by the Tar Heels in one game since the second game of the Feb. 13, 2000, doubleheader with Penn State. On Wednesday against High Point six UNC pitchers combined to strike out 13 batters to up the team average to 9.2 K's per game.
CLOSER BY COMMITTEE
A big question mark heading into the 2002 season was who would become Carolina's go-to pitchers out of the bullpen. One month into the season, no one pitcher has emerged as the clear-cut closer, with four different Tar Heels making eight or more appearances. Scott Senatore, UNC's only left-hander out of the pen, leads the team with 10 appearances, though he has pitched just five complete innings. He earned his first save in Wednesday's win over High Point. Whitley Benson, Carolina's leader in appearances last year as a freshman with 25, has pitched in nine games and has an 0-1 record with two saves and a 3.65 ERA. Carter Harrell is 2-3 and ranks third on the team with 16 strikeouts in eight appearances. Kevin Brower has also appeared in eight games and has a 1.54 ERA. Brower has pitched 10 scoreless innings over seven appearances since giving up two runs in the season-opener on Feb. 15.
TAR HEELS HARD TO BEAT AT HOME IN MIKE FOX ERA
Carolina is 85-23 at Boshamer Stadium under Mike Fox (since 1999), which includes a 22-14 mark against ACC competition and a 65-10 mark against non-league foes. Since 1998, Carolina is actually 87-11 in non-conference home games.
TAR HEEL TIDBITS
* Several Tar Heels are at or are approaching career-long hitting streaks in the first month of the 2002 season. Russ Adams has hit in nine straight games for the third time in his career, while Sean Farrell (six straight) and Chris Maples (eight straight) are both one game off their career bests. Adam Greenberg , who hit in 21 consecutive games in 2000, has hit in seven straight games - that includes six two-hit games in that stretch.
* Carolina has scored at least one run in the first inning of 11 games in 2002. The Tar Heels had a season-high five runs in the top of the first of the March 9 game at Auburn but were held scoreless the rest of the way in losing 7-5.
