University of North Carolina Athletics
Carolina Baseball Monday Notebook
March 21, 2011 | Baseball
March 21, 2011
UNC Wilmington & High Point Notes
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - North Carolina turned in a perfect 4-0 week, including a road sweep against Virginia Tech over the weekend. The Tar Heels improved to 18-3 on the year and 4-2 in conference play and moved to as high as No. 12 in the USA Today/Coaches Poll on Monday. Carolina will host UNC Wilmington, High Point and Duke this week.
The Tar Heels will entertain a pair of midweek opponents this week for the second to last time this year as UNC Wilmington and High Point come to Chapel Hill Tuesday and Wednesday. Carolina will face one midweek opponent each week until May 10-11.
UNC Wilmington comes in after a 2-3 week which saw the Seahawks split a midweek series with Florida Atlantic and drop a weekend series to Towson, 2-1. The Seahawks are 12-8 on the season and are 4-2 in the Colonial Athletic Association.
Leading the way for UNC Wilmington is Thomas Pope who is hitting an impressive .451 at the plate with 32 hits, 14 runs and 20 RBI. Four other hitters enter the week with averages above .300, while Josh Hunter has driven in a team-high 21 runs on four home runs.
UNC Wilmington is hitting .311 on the year and are 39-of-46 on the base paths.
Taking the mound for the Seahawks will be a familiar face in former Tar Heel Ryan Leach who was a member of the 2008 and 2009 squads. Leach enters Tuesday's matchup with a 0-0 record, a 4.43 ERA in four starts that eclipsed 20.1 innings of action. The right-hander owns a 11 to 12 strikeout to walk ratio on the year.
Carolina is 49-12 all-time against the Seahawks.
Wednesday the High Point Panthers will stroll into Boshamer Stadium looking to bounce back from a 6-2 extra-inning loss to the Tar Heels in 2010. Ryan Graepel hit a walk-off grand slam against the Panther in the 10th inning of that contest for the Tar Heels.
High Point is looking to rebound from a 2-1 home series loss against Presbyterian over the weekend but were able to avoid a sweep with a 4-3 win on Sunday.
The duo of Mike Mercurio and Steve Antolik have paced the Panther offense in 2011 as the pair sport nearly identical .390 and .388 batting averages through 22 games. Mercurio has scored a team-high 22 runs, while Antolik has been the big run producer driving in a team-leading 24 runs with 12 extra base hits (9 2B, 3 HR).
Sophomore right-hander Corey Swickle will get the call for the Panthers on the mound and enters Wednesday with a 1-1 record in three appearances, two starts. Swickle owns a 2.45 ERA to go along with a 14 to 4 strikeout to walk ratio.
The Tar Heels and Panthers have met 20 times in the team's histories with Carolina owning a 16-3-1 advantage.
Sophomore right-hander Cody Stiles (3-0, 1.77 ERA) will get the start on Tuesday against UNC Wilmington and fellow sophomore right-hander Chris Munnelly (2-1, 5.30 ERA) will get the call on Wednesday.
Recapping The Week That Was (March 14-20):
• The trio of Jacob Stallings, Jesse Wierzbicki and Seth Baldwin all hit .400 for the week as Stallings and Wierzbicki went 6-for-15 and Baldwin 4-for-10.
•Stallings came up with several clutch at bats during the week for Carolina, while Baldwin drew four walks during the week to post a team-best .571 on-base percentage.
• Wierzbicki drove in five runs on the week with a pair of home runs. The senior first baseman had his career-long hitting streak end at 11 games on Saturday but rebounded with a 3-for-4 performance in the Sunday sweep of Virginia Tech.
• Tommy Coyle is not far behind Wierzbicki and Tom Zengel's season-best hitting streaks of 11 games as the sophomore second sacker has tallied a hit in 10 consecutive games.
• The Tar Heels had a rough week in the field committing six errors after having committed just eight errors in the previous 17 games combined.
• Patrick Johnson had his streak of four straight starts allowing less than two runs snapped on Friday but the senior earned his fourth win of the year tossing seven innings of three-run ball.
• Freshman southpaw Kent Emanuel earned his first career ACC start and twirled another gem with seven innings of two-run ball while equaling a career high with nine punch outs.
• Carolina used eight pitchers in the Sunday win at Virginia Tech as starter Michael Morin left in the bottom of the fifth after suffering a sprained ankle. Morin will likely miss his next start as a result of the injury.
•The eight pitchers was the second most used this season by the Tar Heels, one shy of the nine used against Davidson on March 2.
The sweep at Virginia Tech extended UNC's dominance over the Hokies to 12 straight games. The Tar Heels are 17-1 against the Hokies since they joined the ACC prior to the 2005 season.
