University of North Carolina Athletics
No. 5 Carolina Meets No. 3 Jackets In Atlanta
April 2, 2009 | Baseball
April 2, 2009
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - No. 5 North Carolina plays a second straight ACC Coastal Division series against a top-10 opponent when it travels to No. 3 Georgia Tech for a three-game set beginning Friday at Russ Chandler Stadium. The Tar Heels (22-6, 7-4 ACC) and Yellow Jackets (18-4, 8-2 ACC) are slated to play at 7 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday, and all three games will be aired live on the Tar Heel Sports Network (AM-1360 WCHL, 850 The Buzz).
Tech currently leads the Coastal with an .800 winning percentage. Miami, which hosts Florida State this weekend, is second at .667 (8-4) with Carolina third at .636.
The Tar Heels, who have not played in Atlanta since 2006, have won their last two regular season series from Georgia Tech, but the series has been very competitive over the past five seasons with each team winning eight games. The Tar Heels are in search of their first series win in Atlanta since 1998 and own a 13-21 record versus Georgia Tech since winning that series. The Jackets lead the all-time slate by a 60-51 margin.
Carolina features a balanced attack with a .312 team batting average, a 3.24 staff ERA and a .971 fielding percentage, which has risen sharply over the last eight games and now ranks third in the ACC.
Five Tar Heel starters are batting better than .330 on the season, with Dustin Ackley (.421) ranked second in the league in hitting and in the top five in seven offensive categories. Atlanta-area product Mark Fleury (7 HR, 33 RBI) and Levi Michael (9 HR, 29 RBI) rank among the league's top run producers. In Michael and Ackley (8 HR), UNC is the only team with two players with eight or more homers.
On the mound, UNC will stick with its normal weekend rotation of right-handers Alex White, Adam Warren and Matt Harvey, who earned the win in relief Wednesday. This group has combined to win 59 games at Carolina and leads a staff that has compiled an ACC-best 291 strikeouts and is holding the opposition to a .228 average.
Third baseman Kyle Seager has been outstanding in his career against the Yellow Jackets with a .526 average (10-19), five runs and four RBI over six games. Ackley is a career .286 hitter (8-28) with two homers and seven RBI in six games, while Fleury is 2-for-7 in three career games versus the Jackets.
Relief aces Colin Bates and Brian Moran have also had success against Tech, as Bates made a scoreless three-inning appearance with 5 Ks in last year's series, and Moran has seven strikeouts in three career scoreless innings.
The Tar Heels are fresh off midweek victories over Davidson and Old Dominion and have won three straight games entering the weekend.
Georgia Tech's lone midweek contest was washed out Wednesday at Mercer. The Jackets, who have cancelled five games due to weather this season, are 18-4 and 8-2 in conference action.
Tech owns a .314 team batting average and leads the ACC with 42 home runs, including seven each from Tony Plagman (.363-7-31) and Matt Skole (.353-7-25). Six Yellow Jacket regulars are batting .311 or better.
The Jackets own a 4.06 staff ERA. Right-handers Deck McGuire (5-0, 2.50), Zach Von Tersch (5-1, 5.79) and Kevin Jacob (4-1, 2.97) comprise the rotation for this weekend's series.
