University of North Carolina Athletics
Baseball Welcomes Miami For Three-Game Series
April 25, 2002 | Baseball
April 25, 2002
CHAPEL HILL -- The Carolina baseball team takes a break from ACC action this weekend when it hosts the defending national champion Miami Hurricanes for three games at Boshamer Stadium. The Tar Heels, coming off mid-week wins over Virginia Commonwealth (10-2) and at Charlotte (8-0) on Tuesday and Wednesday, have won five straight games and six of their last seven. UNC's only loss in that stretch was a 2-1 nail-biter on April 17 at East Carolina.
The Tar Heels are 30-14 overall and are ranked No. 9 by Collegiate Baseball, No. 19 by Baseball America and are 23rd in the latest ESPN/Baseball Weekly poll. Miami, ranked No. 3 in the preseason by Baseball America, has struggled at 21-19, but the Hurricanes have won three of their last four games entering this weekend's series, all three of which have come against ranked opponents. Miami took two of three games from then-No. 13 Long Beach State last weekend and rallied for a 6-5 win over No. 17 Florida Atlantic on Wednesday.
"We're excited about Miami and we're excited to have 30 wins," said UNC head coach Mike Fox. "It's a non-ACC weekend, but it's a big weekend for us. I think our players should be very relaxed and really try to enjoy getting to play against another good opponent."
Miami has won 13 of the 19 all-time meetings between the two schools, though the Tar Heels have won two of the last three. In 2000, the Hurricanes were coming off winning the 1999 national championship but lost 9-0 to Carolina at the season-opening Disney Baseball Blast in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. At the time, it was just the second shutout loss Miami had suffered since 1975. In 1998, Carolina and Miami split two meetings at the NCAA Atlantic I Regional in Coral Gables. Miami took the second meeting that weekend, 7-4, to end UNC's season and advance to the College World Series.
The Tar Heels, in the midst of a stretch of eight games in nine days, play on six straight days starting with Friday's 7 p.m. matchup. After three games this weekend, Carolina hosts Elon on Monday, East Carolina on Tuesday and Appalachian State on Wednesday.
"We've got a six-game stretch coming up here that we're going to try to play like a regional or like the ACC Tournament, where you sometimes have to play six games in a row," Fox said. "I hope it can be a bit of a practice going into the Tournament, and hopefully we can play five or six days in a row in the ACC Tournament."
Starting this weekend for the Tar Heels on the mound will be RHP Scott Autrey (2-2, 4.58 ERA), LHP Daniel Moore (3-1, 7.35 ERA) and RHP Garry Bakker (5-2, 3.10 ERA). Miami will counter with RHP Dan Touchet (3-2, 4.82 ERA), RHP Kiki Bengochea (3-5, 7.10 ERA) and RHP Vince Bongiovanni (0-4, 7.62 ERA) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The Tar Heels, who have outscored their opponents by more than seven runs per game during their last six wins, continue to explode offensively in 2002. Carolina has 196 extra base hits compared to 75 by its opponents. Carolina has notched at least 10 hits in 31 games, including five straight, and, at 8.75 runs per game, UNC is on pace to break the school record of 522 runs in the 2000 season (8.29 runs per game).
Carolina also boasts the pitching staff with the most strikeouts in the ACC, with Moore (59), Autrey (54), Carter Harrell (54) and Bakker (50) all registering at least 50 strikeouts this year. As a team, UNC has 373 K's, already 58 more than all of last season.
Game times this weekend are as follows: Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m., Sunday at 1 p.m. Please note, Sunday's first pitch was originally scheduled for 2 p.m., but has been moved one hour earlier.
