University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
UNC Wilmington
Tar Heels Advance To Third Straight Super Regional
June 1, 2008 | Baseball
June 1, 2008
Box Score |
Quotes |
Notes |
Photo Gallery 
CARY, N.C. (AP) - Mark Fleury's three-run homer capped a five-run fifth inning and helped North Carolina beat North Carolina-Wilmington 7-3 on Sunday night in the Cary Regional championship.
Tim Fedroff drove in two runs, and he and Tim Federowicz had RBI singles during the big inning that sent the top-seeded Tar Heels (49-12) into the super regionals for the third straight year - but not before enduring a weather delay of 1 hour, 16 minutes.
Next up: the Conway, S.C., Regional champ - either East Carolina or Coastal Carolina winner. The host site will be announced Monday night.
UNC Wilmington came into the ninth looking for another comeback when Jason Appel singled home a run and the Seahawks brought the tying run to the plate with one out. But Rob Wooten struck out Nate Hall and Cody Stanley for his fourth save.
The Seahawks (44-17-1) advanced to the championship round earlier in the day by rallying past Elon 15-11 with 11 runs in the ninth.
But in Game 2, North Carolina took command in the fifth. Fedroff tied it with a one-out single that scored Dustin Ackley, and two batters later, UNC Wilmington intentionally walked Kyle Seager to get to Federowicz, who lined a single into left field that brought home Fedroff and put the Tar Heels ahead to stay.
That was it for UNCW starter Larry Salefsky (4-3), who was pulled for Jesse Haney. Fleury, who entered the weekend in a 2-for-20 slump in his previous 11 games, greeted him by turning on a 1-2 pitch and sending it over the fence in right field for his third homer, making it 5-1.
Fedroff, who was 9-for-11 for the weekend, added a run-scoring single an inning later to make it a five-run game.
The second game was delayed in the top of the seventh when a storm cell packed with lightning and heavy rain made its way through central North Carolina, briefly halting both regionals in the Raleigh area.
Rhett Miller's RBI single in the second gave UNC Wilmington a brief 1-0 lead, but the Seahawks were unable to piece together the kind of comeback that propelled them into the championship round.
Earlier in the day, Shane French's two-run double highlighting their big ninth inning.
Bobby Leeper finished with three RBIs for the Seahawks, who trailed Elon 11-4 after eight innings. Eight consecutive UNC Wilmington batters reached base in the ninth inning, with No. 9 hitter Mike Rooney tying it at 11-all with a two-run single up the middle off reliever Thomas Girdwood.
French, pinch-hitting for Alex Hill, followed that with a drive off the fence in right-center that brought home pinch-runner Marc Locklear and Rooney, gave the Seahawks a 13-11 lead and put them ahead for good.
Bennett Davis hit his team-leading 18th homer and Donny Jobe drove in three runs for Elon (44-18), which had rallied from a 4-1 deficit with six runs in the sixth.
