University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Va Commonwealth
Baseball Cruises To 10-2 Win Over VCU
April 23, 2002 | Baseball
April 23, 2002
CHAPEL HILL - Russ Adams was 4-for-4 and drove in five runs to lead No. 19 North Carolina to an 8-2 non-conference win over Virginia Commonwealth Tuesday evening at Boshamer Stadium. The Tar Heels, who began a stretch of eight games over nine days with tonight's win, have won five of their last six games and are 29-14 overall. VCU drops to 28-14.
Garry Bakker followed up his shortest ACC start of the season, a rocky three-inning outing vs. NC State last Saturday, by pitching seven four-hit, one-run innings against the Rams. The freshman right-hander struck out six batters, walked one and improved to 5-2 on the season. Bo Acors (6-2) lost for the first time since VCU's season-opener at Auburn on Feb. 8 after allowing seven UNC runs on 10 hits over 5.1 innings.
"The game is always clean and crisp with good pitching," said UNC head coach Mike Fox. "We had a lot of confidence in Garry tonight, and he needed to get in a good start after last weekend. This was a big win for us against a team that I think will be a in a regional."
VCU's Matt Davis ripped a triple down the right field line on Bakker's first pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly, but it was all Carolina from there. UNC stormed back with a four-run second inning, highlighted by two-run singles by Chad Prosser and Adams, for a 4-1 lead.
Adams knocked in UNC's fifth run with a single in the fourth inning and ripped just the fourth home run of his career and third this season with one-out in the sixth. Farrell added his 12th home run of 2002 one batter later for a 7-1 Carolina lead, marking the ninth time this year the Tar Heels have homered in consecutive at bats.
Jose Pabon singled in VCU's only other run in the top of the eighth against reliever Whitley Benson, but Carolina answered with three runs in the bottom half of the inning to cap the scoring at 10-2. Adams added his fifth RBI with a single up the middle, Chris Maples singled to score Sean Farrell and Chase Younts had a pinch-hit single to send home Carolina's 10th run.
UNC, which has scored 10 or more runs in five straight wins, had 15 hits in the victory. Farrell, Maples, Jeremy Cleveland and Ron Braun all added to Adams's big night at the plate with two hits each.
The Tar Heels play at Charlotte on Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. before returning home this weekend to face the defending national champion Miami Hurricanes for three games at Boshamer Stadium. Game times are Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
