Heels Finish Off Regional Sweep, Top James Madison 9-3

Sunday, June 5

Chapel Hill

6:00 PM

North Carolina

James Madison

June 5, 2011 | Baseball

By: UNC Athletic Communications

June 5, 2011

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - Things seem back to normal at North Carolina. After claiming another top-eight national seed, the Tar Heels swept through their regional.

They hope another trip to Omaha is in their future.

Chaz Frank drove in three runs, and North Carolina pulled away late to beat James Madison 9-3 on Sunday night and win the Chapel Hill Regional.

Tommy Coyle and Brian Holberton added two RBIs apiece for the Tar Heels (48-14). They won three games by a combined 27-3 and will host the Fullerton Regional winner next weekend in the super regionals.

"It was tough for us to end the streak," Frank said of North Carolina's run of four straight College World Series appearances that was stopped last year. "We're super-excited this year about going to the super regional."

Jake Lowery's two-run homer in the fifth tied it at 3 for James Madison (42-19).

The Tar Heels got things rolling an inning later. Levi Michael, hitless in 11 at-bats this weekend, doubled off the wall in left-center and came around three batters later when Coyle singled.

"I got a good pitch to hit," Coyle said, "and I didn't miss it."

Jacob Stallings followed with an RBI double to make it 5-3, and they cruised from there in improving to 15-0 since 2006 in regional games at home.

"(The Tar Heels) seemed to be in the right spot all weekend," Dukes coach Spanky McFarland said. "The ball'd come off the bat, we'd think we have a double and somebody's right there."

North Carolina beat James Madison 14-0 on Saturday night, and the Dukes earned a rematch by topping Maine 5-2 in an elimination game earlier Sunday.

The Tar Heels erased their only deficit of the weekend by scoring two runs in the second. Chaz Frank's bases-loaded double scored Ben Bunting to make it 2-1, two batters after Holberton doubled home Stallings for their first run.

After Holberton pushed the Tar Heels' lead to 3-1 with an RBI single in the fifth, Lowery - the Colonial Athletic Association player of the year - tied with his 24th homer, a towering drive that cleared the 400-foot marker in center field.

It was all Tar Heels after that.

"We made it interesting," McFarland said. "We had a little thing called a hard-hitting start. Baseball's the only (game) where you can do everything right and still fail. We hit the ball hard all day -- right at people."

Once, though, that wound up working to their advantage: Matt Tenaglia put the Dukes up 1-0 in the first with a line drive that drilled pitcher Chris Munnelly hard off the heel of his glove, momentarily shaking up the pitcher. Johnny Bladel raced in from third to score the first run against the Tar Heels in the tournament.

North Carolina wore pink socks in honor of coach Mike Fox's late mother, Barbara. Team officials said she died Saturday, and Fox had been away from the team all weekend.

"It was a pretty easy decision. We wanted to honor a great lady and a huge supporter of our baseball program," said associate head coach Scott Forbes, who ran the team in Fox's absence. "Once I got the OK from the head dog (Fox) ... He thought she would appreciate that, so we went with it."