University of North Carolina Athletics
Baseball Travels To Virginia
March 29, 2002 | Baseball
March 29, 2002
UNC Baseball Notes (PDF Format)
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The Carolina baseball team takes an 11-game winning streak to Virginia for its first ACC road series of the season this weekend. The Tar Heels have not lost since dropping three games at Auburn (March 8-10) and are 6-0 in the ACC for the first time since 1990, the last year they won the conference title.
Carolina's offensive production, particularly over the last 11 games, has been staggering. The Tar Heels are hitting .369 since being swept at Auburn and have 72 extra base hits compared to 14 by their opponents, including 33 home runs. Chris Maples has led the way with 10 home runs and 27 RBIs in the last 11 outings and he was named ACC Player of the Week on March 26.
"I've never seen anything like this," said UNC head coach Mike Fox after the Tar Heels hit six home runs in a 17-9 win over Towson on Wednesday. "I've had teams that have been hot offensively, with six or seven guys in the lineup swinging the bat well, but not with this kind of power. It beats anything I've ever seen.
"Right now we're just trying to enjoy it. It's the fun part of baseball. I'm really having a ball watching our guys play like this."
UNC's pitching staff has been equally impressive, holding opponents to a .214 batting average over the past 11 games while striking out 85 batters. Freshman Carter Harrell has recorded 17 K's to just one walk in that stretch.
Carolina is ready for a stiff test at Virginia, a place Carolina has not won a series since 1994. The Cavaliers are 15-10 overall and 4-2 in the ACC after sweeping Duke last weekend.
"It's a whole different ball game when you go on the road in the ACC," Fox says. "It's hard for anyone to win on the road. We'll have our hands full up there. It's a hard place to win and we haven't had much success. They play well up there and with a lot of confidence."
Game times are Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
UNC Pitching Rotation
Friday: Scott Autrey, RHP (0-1, 5.45 ERA)
Saturday: Garry Bakker, RHP (2-1, 2.97 ERA)
Sunday: Daniel Moore, LHP (3-0, 7.11 ERA)
WORST TO FIRST IN ACC PLAY After opening ACC play with sweeps of Maryland and Florida State, Carolina is 6-0 in league play, its best ACC start since opening the 1990 campaign 8-0 en route to the conference championship. Carolina also opened 8-0 in the ACC in 1984 and was a perfect 14-0 in conference games in 1964.
Last year, Carolina got off to an 0-7 start in the league, its worst ACC start in school history. The Tar Heels won three of their last four regular-season ACC games to finish 9-15 and in sixth place in 2001. Dating back to a 4-0 win at Clemson on April 29, 2001, Carolina has won nine of its last 10 regular-season ACC contests, including the one win over Clemson, two over Georgia Tech and three each over Maryland and FSU.
LAST YEAR AGAINST VIRGINIA
Behind its best pitching of the season, Carolina took two of three games from Virginia last year in Chapel Hill (April 13-15, 2001). The Tar Heels won the series-opener 10-6 behind a 13-strikeout performance from Dennis Robinson. On Saturday, Carolina was down 5-4 entering the bottom of the seventh but got three runs in that half inning and then held on for a 7-6 win behind the pitching of Kevin Brower. Brower struck out four over the final 3.0 innings, including a full-count strikeout for the final out of the game with UVa. threatening with runners at the corners. In Sunday's series finale, Virginia's Brandon Creswell allowed just two UNC runs (only one earned) on six hits for a complete-game victory to avoid the series sweep. Carolina rallied for runs in the eighth and ninth innings but could not prevail, falling 5-2.
GREENBERG BREAKS UNC CAREER TRIPLE RECORD
After a solid but unspectacular sophomore season, junior Adam Greenberg has played with the form that earned him ACC Rookie of the Year honors in 2000. Greenberg, who has started 143 of UNC's 145 games over the past three seasons in center field, is hitting .327 and became UNC's all-time triples leader with the 15th of his career in the fifth inning of the March 26 win over Towson. He passed UNC assistant coach Chad Holbrook, who had 14 triples from 1990-93.
Greenberg followed up that effort with home runs in three consecutive at bats versus Towson one day later on March 27. It was the first three-home-run game of his career and the first by a Tar Heel since slugger Ryan Earey in 1999. He also tied the single-game UNC record by scoring five runs against the Tigers. B.J. Surhoff (1985), Dan Moylan (1998) and Jarrett Shearin (1999) are the only other Tar Heels to score five runs in one game. Against Auburn on March 10, Greenberg had a pair of homers.
Greenberg, who has 18 stolen bases in 19 attempts, also has three leadoff homers in 2002 and six in his career.
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 51 homers through 25 games in 2002. Chris Maples has a dozen homers and is already half way to the single-season record of 24. Sean Farrell ranks second on the team with eight homers and is followed by eight other Tar Heels with at least one home run. Farrell, Ryan Blake, Adam Greenberg and Russ Adams have all had two-homer games this season. Maples has had a pair of home runs three different times in 2002, while Greenberg hit a career-best three home runs on Wednesday versus Towson.
The Tar Heels have also had two innings this season with home runs in three consecutive at bats. Farrell, Maples and Jeremy Cleveland went deep in back-to-back-to-back at bats in the second inning of the March 17 win over Maryland, and Blake, Maples and Chris Iannetta did the same four days later against Princeton (March 20). Carolina had seven home runs overall against the Tigers on March 20, its most in one game since hitting nine in a 16-4 win at Maryland on April 8, 1995.
Carolina also has 72 doubles and 12 triples for 135 extra base hits in just 25 games, compared to 42 extra base hits by its opponents.
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 and is among the ACC's leaders with 38 strikeouts, including a career-high 12 on March 1 vs. California. Freshman Carter Harrell has 30 strikeouts and has found his rhythm over the past week. Harrell has three wins and a save in his last four outings. He has struck out 17 batters, walked one and given up just two runs over 14.0 innings in that stretch. Scott Autrey, who's third on the team with 28 K's, had a career-high eight strikeouts on March 8 at Auburn.
As a staff, the Tar Heels have struck out at least nine batters in 15 of 25 games this season, and have gone into double digits with at least 10 K's nine different times. Last year, Carolina had 10 or more strikeouts five times all season. 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.
UNC Baseball Notes (PDF Format)Download Free Acrobat Reader
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