University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Virginia (ACC Tournament)
Tar Heels Survive Scare From Virginia, 11-10
May 22, 2002 | Baseball
May 22, 2002
ST. PETESBURG, FLA. - North Carolina outlasted Virginia, 11-10, Wednesday evening in a wild end to the first day of competition at the 2002 ACC Baseball Tournament at Florida Power Park in St. Petersburg, Fla. Carolina led 8-0 after three innings but needed three runs in the bottom of the seventh to come back from a 10-8 deficit for the win. Carolina, which has not won an ACC Tournament First Round game since 1998, improves to 40-17, while Virginia fell to 25-31.
"We got out to the big lead, and obviously we just had to hold on," said UNC head coach Mike Fox. "I give a lot of credit to Virginia for coming back and outscoring us 10-0 over those three innings, and we just couldn't seem to get them out. The momentum was with them, but I give our team a lot of credit for coming back and winning the game."
Adam Greenberg sparked a six-run first inning for Carolina with his seventh leadoff home run of the season and his 16th homer overall in 2002. Jeremy Cleveland added a two-run homer to left-center field, while Chris Maples and Chad Prosser both had RBI singles and Ron Braun drove in a run with a double off the wall in right in UNC's big first inning.
Greg Mangum added an RBI single in the second and Sean Farrell drove in UNC's eighth run of the game in the third inning, before the Cavaliers stormed back.
Virginia scored four runs, including a two-run homer by David Stone in the fifth and chased Tar Heel starter Scott Autrey from the game and took the lead with a five-run sixth inning. Matt Street's bases-clearing triple with two outs in the sixth highlighted the inning for the Cavs.
After Virginia extended its lead to 10-8 in the seventh, Carolina answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning to pull back ahead, 11-10. Farrell drew a bases-loaded walk and Maples had a two-out, two-run single up the middle for the go-ahead runs.
Carter Harrell (8-3) pitched the final 2.2 scoreless innings out of the bullpen for the win, in a game that lasted past midnight and into Thursday morning.
Carolina established a new school record for single-season home runs in 2002. Carolina has hit 97 home runs in 2002, while the previous school record was 95 home runs in 1986.
Chris Maples extended his career-long hit streak to 18 games with his first-inning single, while Cleveland has hit safely in 11 straight games, a season-long streak.
Carolina plays Wake Forest in the Thursday's second round at 8:30 p.m. Freshman Garry Bakker is set to start for the Tar Heels.
