University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
High Point
No. 12 Carolina Shuts Out High Point, 4-0
March 23, 2011 | Baseball
March 23, 2011
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - North Carolina rode its strong bullpen and timely hitting to a 4-0 win over visiting High Point (13-10) Wednesday evening at Boshamer Stadium. Chris Munnelly earned the win, while Colin Moran clubbed his second home run in as many days to help propel Carolina to its sixth straight victory.
Chris Munnelly made his fifth start of the year Wednesday night and delivered three scoreless innings while allowing just two base runners on a walk and a single.
Andrew Smith threw just as well notching a pair of strikeouts over three innings of work. The Panthers managed just two hits off the freshman right-hander.
The Tar Heels struck first in the bottom of the second when they used another patented two-out rally to scratch across a run. Jesse Wierzbicki started things off with a single up the middle before swiping his second base of the year.
Brian Holberton followed with a cue shot double just inside the bag at third to score Wierzbicki and provide Munnelly an early run.
Colin Moran continued his power hitting week in the bottom of the fourth when he launched a two-run home run over the right field wall following a Jacob Stallings walk to make the score 3-0 in favor of UNC.
Freshman Tate Parrish would enter the game in the top of the seventh as the young southpaw delivered 1.2 innings of shutout baseball. The outing was the longest of Parrish's career to date.
The Tar Heels tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh as Tom Zengel led off with a triple in to the right center field gap just past the outstretched arms of High Point centerfielder Ryan Retz. Jeff Bouton would come on to pinch run for Zengel and would eventually score when Ben Bunting lifted a fly ball to right field deep enough to score Bouton and extend Carolina's lead to 4-0.
Parrish would pick up the first two outs of the eighth before making way for fellow freshman Shane Taylor who struck out the only batter he faced in the eighth.
Taylor would come back out for the ninth and turned in a 1-2-3 inning for Carolina's first shutout since May 12 of last year when the Tar Heels downed College of Charleston by a score of 10-0.
Tommy Coyle extended his career-best hitting streak to 12 games in the bottom of the fifth when he rifled a ball down the right field line for a two-out double.
Coyle started at shortstop in place of the injured Levi Michael and made several impressive plays and also turned a rally-killing double play with Brian Holberton in the top of the very first inning.
Holberton and Wierzbicki finished with two hits apiece, while Moran was once again the leading RBI man with two and now leads the team in RBI with 30 on the year.
Up next for the Tar Heels is a visit from rival Duke on Friday with first pitch set for 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday's games will be at 2 p.m. and 1 p.m. at Boshamer Stadium as well.
