University of North Carolina Athletics
Baseball Welcomes NC State For Final ACC Home Series
April 19, 2002 | Baseball
April 19, 2002
The 21st-ranked UNC baseball team hosts its final Atlantic Coast Conference series of the season this weekend when rival NC State comes to Chapel Hill for three games at Boshamer Stadium. The Tar Heels and Wolfpack are both 25-14 overall, while Carolina is 10-5 in the ACC and NC State has a 4-8 mark in the conference.
The Tar Heels, coming off a tough 2-1 loss on Wednesday at No. 20 East Carolina, have a 19-6 record at home in 2002, including a 7-2 mark in league games. Four of UNC's seven home wins have come against the No. 1 team in the nation (three vs. Florida State, one vs. Clemson).
"This is our last ACC home series, and at 10-5 this is a huge weekend," said Carolina head coach Mike Fox. "We can really put ourselves in a good position if we play well. It will be a tough series.
"They will play very well against us I'm sure. The level of play usually goes up in rivalry games. We better match that. It's just a very pivotal series, especially with us going on the road for the last six ACC games (at Duke and Georgia Tech)."
Only Carolina and Wake Forest have met more times in school history than the Tar Heels and Wolfpack, as UNC and NCSU have played 245 times since 1895, with Carolina holding a 135-109-1 edge in the series. Carolina has won the last two series between the two schools and has not dropped a three-game series in Chapel Hill to NC State since 1994.
Last year in Raleigh, Carolina won its first series at NC State since 1993 with wins in two of three games. Chad Prosser batted 9-for-12 and Adam Greenberg was 7-for-14 to lead the Tar Heels against the Wolfpack.
The Tar Heels are slated to throw Scott Autrey (1-2) on Friday, Garry Bakker (4-2) on Saturday and Daniel Moore (3-1) on Sunday.
Game times are Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Friday night is "Bust The Bosh" night at Boshamer Stadium, as the Tar Heels hope to set a new attendance record. On Saturday, fans of all ages are invited to stay and watch the Academy Award winning film Shrek on Carolina's state-of-the-art video board following the baseball game.
