University of North Carolina Athletics
Carolina Baseball Monday Notebook
March 7, 2011 | Baseball
March 7, 2011
North Carolina will close out a 10-game home stand this week as the Tar Heels host Elon (8-4) Tuesday and St. John's (5-4) Wednesday before making the trek to Winston-Salem, N.C. to open Atlantic Coast Conference play Friday against Wake Forest (4-7). Carolina is coming off a perfect 5-0 week with wins over Charlotte, Davidson a sweep of Stony Brook.
Elon heads east with a three-game winning streak after posting a 3-1 record in the Elon Tournament over the weekend. The Phoenix are led by Jake Luce at the plate who owns a .421 average (16-38) on the year, with six runs scored and seven RBI.
Harry Austin has crossed the plate a team-high 13 times for Elon, while three different hitters have driven in 10 runs through the opening dozen games of the year.
The Phoenix will send LHP Dylan Clark to the mound on Tuesday who owns a 1.00 ERA but an 0-2 record in three appearances. Clark has thrown nine innings on the year allowing six hits, two runs, one earned, walked one and struck out eight.
The Phoenix will have to field better behind Clark as they have committed 22 errors so far this season, while Carolina enters having committed just eight on the year.
St. John's is making its way through the South during its spring break and will make a stop in Chapel Hill Wednesday. The Red Storm captured a series at Georgia Southern over the weekend and will take on UNC Greensboro Tuesday before doing battle with Carolina.
St. John's boasts one of the top shortstops in the country in Joe Panik who enters the week with a .462 average (18-39) with a team-high 13 runs and 10 RBI. Outfielder Jeremy Baltz leads the Red Storm with 13 RBI on the season.
The Red Storm have yet to name a starter for Wednesday's contest and have yet to play a midweek game this season.
In the Rankings
Carolina moved up in every poll released on Monday:
| Poll | This Week | Last Week |
| Baseball America | 15 | 23 |
| Collegiate Baseball | 16 | 17 |
| Perfect Game | 16 | 20 |
| USA Today/Coaches | 16 | 18 |
St. John's is receiving votes in the latest USA Today/Coaches Poll.
Recapping The Week That Was (Feb. 28-March 6)
• Carolina turned in a perfect 5-0 week, its second perfect week of the year after opening 4-0.
• Eight of nine starters hit over .333 for the week, led by the duo of Chaz Frank and Colin Moran who each hit .389 (7-18) in the five wins.
• Levi Michael connected on his first home run of the season in the first game of Saturday's twinbill sweep of Stony Brook a solo shot from the left side of the plate. In the very next game Michael blasted a three-run shot from the right side of the dish for his second homer of the day.
• A pair of freshmen connected on their first career home runs Saturday as Brian Holberton hit a two-run shot in game one and Tom Zengel blasted a game-tying solo shot in game two.
• Zengel enters the week with an ACC-leading 10 game hit streak after his seventh inning blast helped extend the run.
• Carolina hit .350 for the week with 22 extra-base hits and scored a combined 52 runs.
• The pitchers were not too bad either combining for a 3.60 ERA in 45 innings of action.
• Leading the way was Kent Emanuel who carried a shutout into the ninth inning Tuesday against Charlotte. Emanuel finished with eight two-run innings, no walks and a career-high nine strikeouts in his first career home start.
• Senior Patrick Johnson continued his hot start to the year tossing seven one-run innings against Stony Brook on Friday. Patrick has not allowed more than one earned run all season.
• Greg Holt earned his team-leading third win of the year in the come from behind win over Stony Brook on Saturday.
