University of North Carolina Athletics
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East Carolina
Baseball Drops Tight One To East Carolina
April 17, 2002 | Baseball
April 17, 2002
GREENVILLE, N.C. - ECU's Warren Gaspar drew a bases-loaded walk from Michael Gross in the bottom of the ninth to give No. 20 East Carolina a 2-1 win over No. 21 North Carolina Wednesday evening in front of a 3,890 spectators, the largest crowd in Harrington Field history.
Four East Carolina pitchers allowed Carolina just four hits and a season-low one run in taking just its second win in the last 10 tries against the Tar Heels. Neal Sears (5-0) pitched a perfect ninth inning for the win, while Gross falls to 3-3 with the loss.
"We knew this would be a tough game and that East Carolina had some good pitchers," said UNC head coach Mike Fox. "We just didn't do enough offensively to win the game. That's no discredit to East Carolina, I was just surprised that we played sluggishly tonight. We didn't have many good swings of the bat, and when we did they made plays on them."
With the game tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the ninth, Ben Sanderson and Darryle Lawhorn had back-to-back one-out singles. Bryant Ward grounded out, but Gross issued consecutive walks to end the game. Gaspar worked the count full and fouled a ball to the left side that was nearly caught by Tar Heel third baseman Chris Maples, but the next pitch was low and drove in Sanderson from third for the winning run.
"I was disappointed in the way we lost there at the end," Fox said. "We had a couple of chances to get out of the inning, but we just couldn't make the plays."
ECU got its only other run in the third and Carolina tied the game, 1-1, with an unearned run in the seventh, but stellar pitching and defense was the difference in this nail-biter between Top 25 teams.
Gasper made several terrific plays in center, robbing Greenberg of a hit with a nifty over-the-shoulder grab at the fence to end the third inning and collecting all three putouts in the fourth, including a diving catch of a Russ Adams drive to left center and a grab at the fence in of a potential Chris Maples homer.
Carolina stayed within a run with some fine defense of its own in the bottom of the sixth. Chad Prosser threw out Gaspar at the plate for the second out of the inning and Kevin Brower saved two runs when he snared a shot hit back to the mound to send the 1-0 game into the seventh.
Carolina brought its top of the order to the plate in the ninth, but Sears struck out Greenberg and got Russ Adams to fly out to center for the second out. Sean Farrell laced a shot to left field but Paige made a leaping catch to end the inning to send the game into the bottom of the ninth.
Carolina is back in ACC action this weekend against NC State. The Tar Heels host the Wolfpack for games Friday (7 p.m.), Saturday (2 p.m.) and Sunday (2 p.m.) at Boshamer Stadium.
