University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Appalachian State
No. 13 Tar Heels Claim 7-2 Win Over Appalachian State
May 17, 2011 | Baseball
May 17, 2011
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - North Carolina broke open a tight contest with a four-run eighth inning Tuesday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium as the Tar Heels (41-12) posted a 7-2 win over visiting Appalachian State (29-24). Greg Holt improved to 7-1 on the year as he threw 4.1 innings of relief, striking out a career-high seven batters.
Seth Baldwin and Levi Michael each drove in a pair of the Tar Heels and lead off man Chaz Frank scored twice and reached base three times for Carolina.
Starter Cody Stiles was unable to get out of the first inning as he issued three walks and hit a batter allowing Appalachian State to score the game's opening run. Greg Holt came on with the bases loaded in the first and picked up the final out to keep the damage to a minimum.
Holt would retire nine straight batters before encountering trouble with two down in the fourth inning.
A single off of Holt's glove and a walk put a pair of runners on base for Jeremy Dowdy who singled through the left side allowing the Mountaineers to tie it up after the Tar Heels gained the lead in the third inning.
Holt helped himself in the third with a lead off single and moved to third when Chaz Frank singled and then stole second base to put a pair of runners in scoring position for Levi Michael.
The junior shortstop battled to a 3-2 count before hitting a chopper back up the middle to plate Holt and Frank giving Carolina the 2-1 lead.
With the score tied going into the bottom half of the fifth Chaz Frank single-handedly provided the go-ahead run with his speed. Frank was hit by a pitch to reach first and then proceeded to steal second base.
The throw from Appalachian State's Dowdy hit off of the shortstop's glove and kicked into right field allowing Frank to reach third and was sent home beating the throw in to the plate and giving Carolina a 3-2 advantage.
Shane Taylor threw a scoreless sixth and seventh innings and earned the first out of the eighth before fellow freshman Andrew Smith recorded the final two outs of the inning.
Then the Tar Heel bats broke the game open with a four-spot in the bottom half of the eighth. Jesse Wierzbicki drew a one-out single and moved up 90 feet on Tommy Coyle's single through the right side.
Jacob Stallings made it 4-2 in favor of Carolina with a RBI single to left field plating Wierzbicki. With the speedster Coyle at third Ben Bunting executed a safety squeeze play to make the score 5-2 before Seth Baldwin provided the biggest hit of the day.
aldwin drove a Will Helms offering well over the right field fence for a two-run home run extending Carolina's lead to 7-2.
Bryant Gaines notched the first two outs of the ninth before Cody Penny retired the final batter to help improve Carolina to 24-2 in non-conference action this year.
Carolina will return to action Thursday when it hosts No. 1 Virginia in a crucial ACC showdown. The three-game series will be fan appreciation weekend at Boshamer Stadium.
