University of North Carolina Athletics
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UNC Asheville
Carolina Holds Off UNC Asheville, 10-5
April 11, 2012 | Baseball
April 11, 2012
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - No. 8 North Carolina bounced back from its first series loss of the year Wednesday night with a 10-5 win over visiting UNC Asheville. Chaz Frank and Michael Russell drove in two runs apiece and Parks Jordan set a career high with four RBI in the victory.
The win pushed the Tar Heels within one of 25 for the season as they sit at 24-9 on the year, while UNC Asheville fell to 16-19 overall.
Cody Stubbs notched a pair of hits on the night, including his team-leading fourth home run of the year, a solo shot to center field to open the second inning.
The Tar Heels set a school record with four sacrifice flies in the win over the Bulldogs. Parks Jordan registered a pair of sacrifice flies with one in the second inning and another in the fourth. Jacob Stallings and Michael Russell each picked up a sacrifice fly of their own as well.
Sophomore left-hander Hobbs Johnson earned the start for the Tar Heels and threw 3.1 hitless innings in his first career start. Johnson struck out a career-high six batters, but left with a man on first that came around to score for the Bulldogs first run.
Carolina jumped out to a 6-1 lead after six innings before the Bulldogs started to chip away at the advantage. The Tar Heels were forced to use four of their nine pitchers in the seventh inning as UNC Asheville pushed across three runs to climb to within a 6-4 margin.
The Bulldogs made it a one-run lead with a single run in the eighth before Michael Morin came on and escaped a bases-loaded jam thanks to a strikeout and a bang-bang play at first on a ground ball that Jordan flipped to Morin to end the threat.
Carolina answered in the bottom half of the eighth when Parks Jordan laced a two-run single into left field to make it an 8-5 game. Later in the inning with runners at second and third and one out Chaz Frank dropped down a squeeze bunt that scored Jordan from third and also scored Tom Zengel from second who raced around on the throw to first to make it a 10-5 game.
Morin and Mason McCullough combined on a scoreless ninth as the Tar Heels improved to 8-1 in midweek games this season and tallied their 17th home win.
Carolina will look to keep the momentum going this weekend when the Tar Heels travel to No. 23 Virginia for a three-game set scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
