University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Appalachian St
UNC Baseball Tops Appalachian State, 7-3
May 1, 2002 | Baseball
May 1, 2002
CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina defeated Appalachian State, 7-3, Wednesday evening in its final regular-season home game of the season. Mell Adams drove in three runs and Scott Autrey notched six strikeouts in four innings to lead the seventh-ranked Tar Heels, who improved to 35-15 with the win. Appalachian State falls to 15-27.
Carolina finished its 35-game regular-season home schedule with 28 wins, two shy of the Boshamer Stadium record of 30 posted in 2000 and 1993. The Tar Heels enter a nine-day break for final exams with 11 wins in their last 13 games, having dropped just a pair of one-run games in that two and a half week stretch.
"We didn't play exceptionally well, but we did what we needed to do," said UNC head coach Mike Fox. "This was a tough stretch for us. This was a game that worried me a little bit.
"Even though I may not be real happy tonight, the last 36 I've been real happy, since we got on the bus home from Auburn. We were 6-8 and since that we're 29-7 against one of the best schedules in the country."
Appalachian State got two hits, including an RBI single by DH Chris Downard in the first inning, before Autrey (3-2) settled down and retired the final 11 batters he faced in a pre-determined four-inning outing.
Carolina answered with three runs on just one hit, a two-run single by Chase Younts, in the second inning for a 3-1 lead. UNC extended its lead to 5-1 with a two-run double down the left field line by Adams in the third.
Meanwhile, Garry Bakker came out of the bullpen and struck out two of the three batters he faced in the fifth to preserve the 5-1 advantage. Daniel Moore registered a pair of strikeouts in the sixth inning, but an RBI single by Brian Chapman with two outs cut the Carolina lead to 5-2.
The Mountaineers narrowed the gap to 5-3 with another run in the seventh, an RBI double by Brooks Haislip off of Adams, who faced three batters in the seventh and was one of six UNC pitchers to see time on the mound against the Mountaineers.
Carolina extended its lead back to three runs in the bottom half of the inning, when Sean Farrell singled and scored on a double to left by Chris Maples, his 21st of the season and tied for the fourth most in a single season in school history. As a team, the Tar Heels have hit 124 doubles on the season, seventh most ever at Carolina. Carolina hit a school-record 137 doubles in 1998.
Ryan Blake singled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Mell Adams in the eighth to cap the scoring.
After playing eight games over the last nine days, the Tar Heels break for final exams. UNC returns to action at Duke (May 11-13) and at Georgia Tech (May 17-19) before traveling to St. Petersburg, Fla., for the 2002 ACC Tournament.
"This team knows that we haven't accomplished any of our goals so far, so I know they'll stay motivated and do their work over the break," Fox said.
Adam Greenberg extended his season-long hit streak to 13 games with two singles on Monday. Farrell, and Blake also had two hits to lead UNC's 11-hit attack.
