Fedroff Leads Tar Heels Past Mount St. Mary's

Friday, May 30

Cary, N.C.

6:00 PM

North Carolina

Mount St. Mary's

May 30, 2008 | Baseball

By: UNC Athletic Communications

May 30, 2008

CARY, N.C. (AP) - Tim Fedroff matched a career high with six RBIs Friday night to lead North Carolina past Mount St. Mary's 16-8 in the first round of the Cary Regional.

Seth Williams homered and drove in three runs and Dustin Ackley had four hits and three RBIs for the top-seeded Tar Heels (47-12), who came out looking every bit the part of the No. 2 team in the 64-team tournament in setting school record for runs scored in an NCAA tournament game.

North Carolina scored multiple runs in each of the first four innings, jumped out to a 10-1 lead, held off the Mountaineers' rally against the bullpen and pulled away late to take a successful first step toward their third straight College World Series berth.

Next up for North Carolina is second-seeded UNC Wilmington, which beat Elon in the other opener, while fourth-seeded Mount St. Mary's (21-33) faces the Phoenix in an elimination game.

Zach Helman hit a two-run homer in the fifth, one inning before Mount St. Mary's scored four runs to make it 10-7.

The Tar Heels countered with four runs in the bottom of the sixth, with Fedroff delivering the biggest hit when he doubled into left-center field and came around to score when Shane Elder misplayed the ball.

Fedroff - who finished 4-for-4 - had a two-run double in the first and a two-run single in the seventh inning in matching his six-RBI game against Maryland on March 23.

Rob Wooten (6-2) came on in the sixth inning and worked 1 1-3 innings for the win. Matt Harvey, the Tar Heels' usual Sunday starter, worked just three innings of one-hit ball with three strikeouts, but left after three innings with a 8-1 lead.

Max Brittenham (4-6) allowed eight runs - five earned - on eight hits in two innings for the Mountaineers, whose four-game winning streak was snapped. Mount St. Mary's dropped its Northeast Conference tournament opener before emerging from the losers' bracket to win the league title.

Helman's two-run shot in the fifth started the Mountaineers' comeback. He and Kyle Kane drove in three runs apiece for Mount St. Mary's.

The Tar Heels set their previous mark of 15 runs in 1948 against Georgia Tech, and tied it in 1978 against East Tennessee State and in 2006 against Maine. They were held scoreless in only two innings - the fifth and eighth.