University of North Carolina Athletics
Baseball Blog From Rock Hill (final)
February 29, 2008 | Baseball
Feb. 29, 2008
Adam Lucas back on the perch in Rock Hill. We've got all the essentials for a good day of baseball: Carolina and Kent State, a much warmer day, and two unopened boxes of honey butter Ritz crackers (see yesterday's blog for the details). Lineups are already in for our 12:30 start:
Carolina
1. Tim Fedroff, RF
2. Garrett Gore, SS
3. Dustin Ackley, 1b
4. Chad Flack, 3b
5. Kyle Seager, 2b
6. Tim Federowicz, DH
7. Ben Bunting, LF
8. Seth Williams, CF
9. Mark Fleury, C
Alex White, P
Kent State
1. Chris Tremblay, SS
2. Doug Sanders, 2b
3. Ben Klafczynski, DH
4. Anthony Gallas, LF
5. Brad Winter, 1b
6. Jason Patton, RF
7. Brett Weibley, 3b
8. Cory Hindel, C
9. Jared Humphreys, CF
Chris Carpenter, P
12:25 p.m.: Time to open up the email inbox. Remember, we love to hear from you with questions, comments, or just a simple hello. At the moment, the lines are being painted on the field. Carolina will wear their Carolina blue two-button tops with "Carolina" across the chests and white pants with blue hats. The Golden Flashes are in all white with navy letters and numbers and navy hats. We've already had one jersey issue today, as both teams arrived at the Winthrop Ballpark wearing all white. It seems both squads thought they were the home team. In reality, it's Kent State that's the home team.
That means we'll get our first look at Carpenter very shortly. The 6-foot-4 righthander is the #35 player in Baseball America's ranking of the top 100 draft prospects for 2008. It'll be the first of two good tests, as tomorrow's starter for St. John's is lefty Scott Barnes, who ranks #46 on that same list. The only Tar Heel on the BA list is Tim Federowicz at #42.
Top of the 1st: The Golden Flashes are on the field amd we re ready for baseball. As you might have noticed, today is Feb. 29. According to SID John Martin, the only other Carolina baseball games played on a leap day came in 1980, 1992, and 2004. A bad omen: the Tar Heels are 1-2 on 2/29, with the only win coming in 1992. On the very first pitch, which came at 12:33, Fedroff flies to center. A rough first week continues for Garrett Gore, as he's hit by a fastball on an 0-1 pitch. That appeared to get him on the upper arm. Control problems have been an issue for Carpenter during his career. Ackley works the count full and then takes ball four. Men on first and second for Chad Flack with one out. A 1-1 fastball comes in high and hard and hits Flack on the hand. Bases loaded with one out for Seager. On 1-2, Seager rips a grounder in the hole between first and second to score two runs. Carolina 2, Kent State 0. Runners on the corners for Federowicz. Carpenter doesn't seem to have much of an idea where his fastball is going. A wild pitch sends Seager to second. On 2-1, Federowicz hits a shallow pop fly to right field and Patton makes the play. That wasn't deep enough to score Flack from third, so Bunting will have a big two-out at-bat. The freshman hits a high chopper that sneaks over the head of the pitcher. On a bang-bang play at first, because KSU second baseman Sanders doesn't charge the ball, Bunting is ruled safe. Meanwhile, as the call at first is being debated, Seager motors all the way around to score from second. Carolina 4, Kent State 0. Bunting steals second on the first pitch, which is--this may sound familiar--a high fastball. Then, on 2-1, Seth Williams becomes the third Tar Heel to be hit by a pitch in the first inning. Mark Fleury is the ninth UNC batter. Nothing happening in the Kent bullpen. By the way, after the rulebook is consulted by the official scorer, Bunting is now the proud owner of a very rare two-RBI infield hit. Fleury strikes out looking to end the inning. 4 runs, 2 hits, 0 errors, 2 left on base.
Bottom of the 1st: Linda from Raleigh emails in with a question about Garrett Davis's performance yesterday and his Carolina future. First, Davis was great yesterday, striking out the side in the ninth inning in his first Tar Heel appearance. Davis is a guy the Tar Heel coaches had hoped to work in before yesterday but the circumstances simply never allowed. As you might have read, Davis is currently the scheduled starter for Carolina on Sunday. I say "scheduled" because if for some reason he's needed in relief before then, that start could go to someone else. Chris Tremblay is the first Kent State hitter. He's also the first White strikeout victim, as he goes down swinging. Sanders follows with a flyout to center for the second out. On the very first pitch, Klafczynski (no, I have no idea how to pronounce it) hits a grounder that hugs the first base line. Ackley fields it and steps on first for the third out of the inning. White needs just eight pitches for that first inning, which is a pleasant change from the 32 used by Carpenter. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base.
Top of the 2nd: A quick survey of the stands behind home plate counts 17 major league scouts in attendance. With Carpenter and White, who will be picked high in 2009, that's no surprise. Fedroff leads off for the second time in two innings and strikes out swinging. Gore decides it's hit or be hit and grounds the first pitch back up the middle for a single. The Tar Heels have noticed that Carpenter is long and slow to the plate, and Gore steals second on the first pitch. The throw bounces into center and he advances to third on an error by the catcher. Ackley lofts a 1-1 pitch into left-center. Leftfielder Gallas makes a nice running catch, but Gore scores from third. Carolina 5, Kent State 0. Gore is out running up and down the line in foul territory, presumably trying to keep the hamstring that troubled him earlier this week warm. Meanwhile, Chad Flack is running the other way, as he beats out an infield hit to short. Carpenter's fastball is good--he's hitting the low 90s on the in-stadium gun--but the location is another matter. Kyle Seager continues to hit well, knocking an RBI double to right-center. Carolina 6, Kent State 0. Still nothing going on in the Kent State bullpen. Federowicz goes the other way for an RBI single. Carolina 7, Kent State 0. I thought there was someone going out to the KSU bullpen but it turned out to be a peanut wrapper blowing in the wind. Bunting grounds to second to end the inning. 3 runs, 4 hits, 0 errors, 1 left on base.
Bottom of the 2nd: Word here in the press box is that Boston College played the Red Sox yesterday. Final score: Red Sox 24, Eagles 0. Former Tar Heel Kyle Snyder threw a couple of innings for the Red Sox. Back here in Rock Hill, just like Adam Warren last night, White is going with the hearty short-sleeve look today. Six of Carolina's nine position players have on the blue long sleeves (the holdouts are Williams, Fleury, and White). Gallas narrowly checks his swing on 2-2 and then works a leadoff walk. When Winter works a 2-0 count, pitching coach Scott Forbes visits the mound for a quick word, probably reminding White not to rush his delivery. The next pitch, predictably, is a strike at the knees. A couple pitches later, Winter is White's second strikeout of the day. One out and a man on first. Patton is retired on a high fly to left. Hindel punches the first Kent State hit of the day over shortstop. Two on and two out. Hindel hits a little nubber to first. Ackley fields it cleanly and White races over to cover the bag. One of the more underrated parts of White's game is that he's a very good athlete. 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 2 left on base. Carolina 7, Winthrop 0.
Top of the 3rd: Sean Smith of Fort Mill is in the email inbox with a question. He wants to know Carolina's all-time record against Kent State. Sean, the Tar Heels lead that series 6-0. Seth Williams strikes out looking to lead off the third. Then Fleury goes down waving at a 1-2 pitch. All of a sudden, Carpenter looks more like a pro prospect. And then, wonder of wonders, we've got a 1-2-3 inning as Fedroff grounds to shortstop as Tremblay makes a very nice play in the hole. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base.
Bottom of the 3rd: The wind is blowing hard from left to right. It should help the lefties. As so often happens, Tremblay makes a nice defensive play and then is the first hitter for the Golden Flashes. But Alex White doesn't care about his defensive prowess, retiring him on a grounder to short to end a nice eight-pitch at-bat. John Martin notes that Seager now ranks second in the ACC with 10 RBI. The leader is Nate Fryman of Duke with 13. Sanders is the third strikeout victim of the day for the second out. So far, it's been the White breaking stuff that has given Kent State the most problems. Klafczynski dumps a two-out single to right. On the next pitch, Gallas does the very same thing, except the ball short-hops Fedroff. It's ruled a single and an error on the right fielder, scoring Klafczynski. Carolina 7, Kent State 1. Winter strikes out looking, so the run is unearned and we go to the fourth. 1 run, 2 hits, 1 error, and 1 left on base.
Top of the fourth: Bonnie Smyre has a helpful email: remembering our question yesterday about Winthrop's pregame kung-fu thing, she says it's a Chinese game kind of like rock-paper-scissors. Don't say you don't learn anything on the blog. Gore is locked in a lengthy battle with Carpenter leading off the fourth. On the ninth pitch of the at-bat, he works a walk. Carpenter has now thrown 80 pitches, but the Kent State bullpen remains quiet. Gore has already stolen one base today. Ackley slaps a grounder that Sanders backs up on and then gets caught on an in-between hop. It's ruled an infield single. Runners on first and second for Flack, who flies out to right on the first pitch. It wasn't quite deep enough to advance the runners. Here's Seager with a chance to catch up to Fryman. Finally some bullpen action, as the Golden Flashes are warming up lefty Kyle Hallock. The runnin' Tar Heels steal another base, as Gore and Ackley execute a double steal. The throw sails into left, scoring Gore and advancing Ackley to third. Carolina 8, Kent State 1. The Golden Flashes bring the infield in to cut off the all-important ninth run. Shortstop Tremblay makes a nice diving stop of a Seager grounder, but then he fires the ball into the ground on the throw and Seager is safe on an error. No advance by Ackley and we've got our first Kent State mound conference. We just had our first fake to third, throw to first play by the pitcher. Surprisingly, it doesn't work. They need to get the Matt Danford instructional video to understand how to run that play. FedEx strikes out swinging. Bunting pops out to right on Carpenter's 95th pitch of the game. 1 run, 1 hit, 2 errors, 2 left on base.
Bottom of the 4th: Winter flies out to the edge of the warning track in left. White's pitch count is at a very manageable 58. Patton does the same, except this one doesn't reach the track. Weibley, whose dad came up here and yelled at the PA announcer for mispronouncing his name, grounds to the hole between short and third. For the second straight day, Gore makes a nice backhand stop and throws to first to end the inning. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base. Carolina 8, Kent State 1
Top of the 5th: Couple of changes--Hallock is in at pitcher and Ryan Tokarz is end at shortstop. Hallock's first hitter will be Seth Williams. He flies out to right. Fleury goes down swinging at a curveball and the Tar Heels have two quick outs as they go back to the top of the order. For the second time in the last three innings, Carolina goes down 1-2-3 as Fedroff grounds to third. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base.
Bottom of the 5th: Hey, don't forget those emails. Speaking of which, Rusty Rogers notes that there's another pitcher with the name of Chris Carpenter. As far as I know, this Chris Carpenter is not related to that Chris Carpenter. Hindel strikes out looking to open the bottom of the fifth. Five strikeouts for White today. Gore retires Humphreys on a grounder to short. Gore really has looked smooth defensively. We're in the middle of an epic White/Tremblay matchup. Finally, on pitch number ten, the inning ends on a fly out to right. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base. Carolina 8, Kent State 1.
Top of the 6th: We're passing the time here in the press box by examining the relative strength of nonconference schedules. Gore, who by the way has scored three runs today, strikes out swinging. Back to schedules--you can get a lot of those numbers here. As you can see, some teams play a tough non-league slate, and some don't. Ackley grounds to second for the second out. Hallock has looked good in his first couple innings, retiring five straight. Now it's six straight, as Flack flies out to center.0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base.
Bottom of the 6th: White is back on the mound but may not be there for long. A pair of freshmen--righty Patrick Johnson and lefty Logan Munson --are throwing in the bullpen and White has thrown 82 pitches. He still looks strong, though, as he fans Sanders on three pitches. That's strikeout number six. Klafczynski grounds to second for out number two. Gallas rips one down the line and Flack goes down to one knee to scoop it. But his throw to first barely pulls Ackley off the bag, so Gallas is safe with an infield hit. That brings up Winter in what probably will be White's last hitter of the day. He grounds to Gore, who steps on the bag to end the inning. White has now thrown 11 1/3 innings this year and has yet to give up an earned run. His line so far: 6 IP, 4 H, 6 K, 1 BB. His strikeout/walk ratio so far this year is 12/3. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base. Carolina 8, Kent State 1.
Top of the 7th: Seager flies out deep to center. Seven straight men retired by Hallock. Earl and Beth Passwaters send an email from Delaware, where they say it's very cold. Speaking of cold, the Tar Heel hoops team is headed to Boston, where tomorrow's high is expected to be around 30 with several inches of snow. That's ACC weather for sure. Federowicz flies to center for the second out. Bunting goes down looking and that's three perfect innings for Hallock. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base.
Bottom of the 7th: Freshman righty Patrick Johnson is now on the mound, wrapping up a great performance from White. Johnson had a rough outing in the Saturday game at FAU but this is another young arm the Tar Heels are excited about. Linda from Raleigh reminds us that there is other baseball being played in the ACC. NC State is in the Charleston Firefighter Memorial event in Charleston. They lost to Roger Williams and Louisville 3-1 this afternoon. Other good games involving league teams tonight: Florida at Miami, FSU at Auburn, and Clemson at College of Charleston. Jason Patton greets Johnson with a single to left. The first out of the inning comes on a long flyout to left center. Pinch-hitter Tyler Martin gets an aluminum bat hit off the handle to left field to put runners at first and second with one out. Humphreys chops the ball in front of the plate. Fleury makes a very nice play to get out of his crouch, field the ball, and fire to second for the second out. Gore makes the relay to first a split-second too late. Johnson retires Tremblay on a called third strike to end the inning. 0 runs, 2 hits, 0 errors, 2 left on base. Carolina 8, Kent State 1.
Top of the 8th: Williams flies out to run Hallock's string to ten straight. Zeke Blanton pinch-hits for Fleury. Our email buddy Linda wants to know when radio broadcasts begin. We'll have the Friday and Saturday games of the Duke series (next weekend) on 850 AM. Then the regular network schedule will begin as soon as men's basketball finishes. As always, all the radio broadcasts will be available through TarHeelBlue.com if you're out of the coverage area. Blanton pokes a single just over the head of the second baseman. Here comes another pinch-hitter--it's Kyle Shelton for Fedroff. Carolina's defense is going to look just a little different in the bottom of the inning. On a 3-2 pitch, Shelton is called out on a curveball that curved around the outside corner but apparently was good enough in the eighth inning of an 8-1 game. Gore strikes out swinging to end the inning. Really nice job in relief by Hallock. 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 1 left on base.
Bottom of the 8th: It might be easier to tell you who is still in the same position--Seth Williams is in center, Ben Bunting is in left, Dustin Ackley is at first, and Patrick Johnson is on the mound. Garrett Gore slides to second to make room for Ryan Graepel at short. Kyle Seager goes to third, Chad Flack moves behind the plate, and Kyle Shelton is in right. Good to see Graepel back out there. Mike Fox strongly considered starting Graepel last night just to make sure he didn't lose any confidence after a rough game against ODU. Don't be fooled by Graepel's early-season fielding struggles. In practice he is consistently the slickest Tar Heel infielder, and Chad Holbrook said recently that Graepel is among the best fielding infielders he has coached here. Sanders fouls out to right and that will do it for Johnson. The new pitcher is Munson, a lefty. He'll face a pinch-hitter, Ryan Mitchell. He gets one up in the wind in right and the ball fools Shelton a little. He drifts back, back, and reaches up and makes an over-the-head catch before slamming into the wall. Gallas grounds out and it's a nice debut for Munson. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base. Carolina 8, Kent State 1.
Top of the 9th: Good news for Carolina baseball fans--Rob Wooten is up and throwing in the UNC bullpen. Rob and Tyler Trice were busy in pregame trying to design a new Tar Heel baseball uniform. Trice suggested a strip of argyle around the sleeve. Wooten favored a navy-on-navy jersey. I threw out the idea of a cream jersey with navy letters. Say what you will about Oregon State, and I certainly have, but their cream jersey is sharp. Ackley singles up the middle leading off the 9th but Flack hits into a 6-4-3 double play and Seager grounds to second to end the inning. 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 0 left on base.
Bottom of the 9th: First things first--thanks for being with us today. No baseball blog tomorrow or Sunday, as I'll be in Boston for basketball. Tar Heel Sports Network radio coverage of that game begins at 2:30 tomorrow. Don't worry, though. John Martin will be right here running Gametracker for baseball over the weekend. Hope all the emailers will tune in next weekend for the first two baseball radio broadcasts of the season. Winter grounds to short for the first out. That will bring Wooten into the game, and a giant sigh of relief goes up from Carolina baseball fans. Wooten will face righty Conor Egan. The second pitch is a sharp slider, so no ill effects from the foul ball on Tuesday. Egan is hanging in there with a full count, fouling off three straight good pitches. He finally works a walk on a borderline fastball just off the black. Weibley works the count to 3-1 and then throws his bat away and heads for first. Only one problem: the pitch was called a strike. Karma then bites Weibley as he strikes out looking on a slider. Everybody up for the last out. A single prolongs the inning for Humphreys. He's retired on a soft grounder to third and that'll do it. 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 2 left on base. Final score: Carolina 8, Kent State 1. Thanks for being here for the blog, and we'll have more quotes and stories later this weekend.
