University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC Hosts Pair Of Big South Foes
March 12, 2013 | Baseball
UNC Hosts Pair Of Big South Foes
• No. 1 North Carolina returns to Boshamer Stadium for a six-game homestand starting Tuesday with a midweek visit from Gardner-Webb.
• The Tar Heels will take on a pair of Big South teams in the midweek as High Point will travel to Chapel Hill on Wednesday.
• Carolina went 5-2 against Big South teams a year ago, including 10-5 win over High Point and a 7-4 loss to Gardner-Webb.
Best Start Since 2000
• The Tar Heels are off to their best start since 2000 as Carolina has reeled off 14 straight wins to open the 2013 campaign.
• The 14-0 start marks the third time under head coach Mike Fox that the Tar Heels have won their first 14 games, joining the 1999 and 2000 squads.
• Since the ACC went to an extended league schedule in 1987, the Tar Heels exited the opening weekend of league play undefeated for the first time.
Heels Get Homer Happy In Winston-Salem
• The Tar Heels brought their big sticks to Wake Forest this past weekend and slugged out 10 home runs in the weekend sweep.
• Freshman Skye Bolt hit a solo home run in each contest, while Brian Holberton and Colin Moran each hit a pair of home runs in Saturday's eight-home affair, the most in a game since 2002.
• Carolina matched half the 2012 season's home run total of 20 over the weekend.
• The Tar Heels entered Friday with just two home runs on the year.
North Carolina-Gardner-Webb History
• Tuesday's contest will be the 10th all-time meeting between Carolina and Gardner-Webb.
• The Tar Heels had a string of eight consecutive wins over the Runnin' Bulldogs snapped a year ago when Gardner-Webb claimed a 7-4 win.
• Gardner-Webb struck for four runs against starter Luis Paula before adding three more in the seventh after Carolina and pulled within one in the sixth inning.
North Carolina-High Point History
• Wednesday's contest will be the 23rd all-time meeting between Carolina and High Point.
• The Tar Heels own an 18-3-1 series advantage over the Panthers as the teams have met each of the last 13 years.
• Carolina has won three straight after an 11-9 setback in 2009, including a 10-5 win a year ago.
• Chaz Frank drove in three runs in the win, while Cody Stubbs and Brian Holberton chipped in a pair of hits.
Carolina Sweeps ACC Opener
• Since head coach Mike Fox took over the Tar Heels prior to the 1999 season Carolina has posted an 8-7 mark in the opening game of the ACC season and a 27-16 mark in the opening series of ACC play.
• The Tar Heels opened the 2013 conference slate with their second straight season-opening road sweep.
• Carolina claimed its fourth ACC-opening sweep since 2002 with the 3-0 showing in Winston-Salem, N.C. after sweeping Maryland (2002) at home, Miami (2007) at home and Clemson (2012) on the road a year ago.
Tar Heels Starting To Pick It
• This past weekend saw the Tar Heels play three perfect games in the field as they posted three consecutive games without committing an error.
• The three game stretch without a miscue is the longest since a five-game streak from May 11-17 a year ago as the Tar Heels fielded every opportunity during a series at Duke and followed up with a midweek contest at UNC Asheville and the series-opener against Virginia Tech.
• Carolina ranks sixth in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a .969 fielding percentage entering the week.
• The Tar Heels finished the 2012 season with a .968 to rank seventh in the ACC.
• The sub-.970 fielding percentage snapped a string of five straight years with a fielding percentage above .970.
Tar Heels One Of Final Unbeatens
• Carolina enters this week as the consenus number one team in the country for the fourth week in a row.
• The Tar Heels are one of four teams remaining without a loss this season.
• Fellow ACC member Florida State and Oregon State enter the week 15-0, a win ahead of the Tar Heels who are 14-0.
• Dartmouth is 3-0 in limited action so far in 2013.
An Early Look At Projected RPI
• The Tar Heels are entering the fifth week of the regular season and are officially a quarter of the way through the regular season.
• The official NCAA RPI will not be released until later in the year but the Tar Heels lead the ACC in a pair of RPI projections and are second in another.
• The Warren Nolan and Boyd's World RPI projections have the Tar Heels at No. 6 this week outdistancing Clemson (15 in Warren Nolan, 16 in Boyd's World).
• Virginia checks in at No. 2 in the College Splits Power Rankings, five spots ahead of the Tar Heels who moved up to No. 7.
Stubbs Named ACC Player Of The Week
• North Carolina senior first baseman Cody Stubbs has been named the Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Player of the Week.
• Stubbs paced No. 1 North Carolina to 40 runs in a perfect 4-0 week as he crossed the plate seven times and drove in eight more.
• Stubbs registered three multi-hit games on the week and hit .500 (7-of-14) with a 1.143 slugging percentage.
• Five of his seven hits went for extra bases as he tallied three doubles and a pair of home runs.
• The current doubles leader in the ACC, Stubbs connected on a two-bagger in each game of UNC's weekend sweep at Wake Forest.
• The Waynesville, N.C., native reached base 11 times and posted a team-high .579 on-base percentage for the week.
Tar Heel Bats Fuel Hot Start
• Carolina enters the week averaging nearly 10 runs a game with 137 runs through the opening 14 games.
• The 2012 season saw the Tar Heels score 372 runs in 62 games an average of 6 runs per contest.
• A big reason behind the offensive surge has been the Tar Heels' ability to keep innings alive this season. The Tar Heels are hitting .283 (43-for-152) with two outs this season, compared to a .258 (182-for-706) average during the 2012 season.
• UNC is ranked among the top 20 in the country in:
• Scoring - 3rd, 9.8
• On Base Percentage - 4th, .441
• Runs - 6th, 137
• Walks - 6th, 95
• Slugging Percentage - 14th, .480
• Home Runs - 17th, 12
• Average - 18th, .316
• Home Runs Per Game - 19th, 0.86
Pitching Just As Good
• Entering the 2013 season the North Carolina pitching staff was considered to be one of the best groups in the country.
• The Tar Heel pitchers are living up to the billing in the early going as they own the thirdlowest ERA in the conference and 11th-lowest in the NCAA at 2.03 entering the week.
• Carolina boasts a pair of starters with sub-1.00 ERAs in midweek starter Trent Thornton at 0.77 in 11.2 innings of work and Friday night starter Kent Emanuel with a 0.56 ERA in a league-high 30 innings.
• Five different pitchers have started a game this season and have combined to post a 1.78 ERA through the opening 14 games of the season and have been a key component to UNC's success.
• Opponents are struggling to get hits against the bullpen as well as the group has posted a .184 batting average against.
Freshmen Leading The Charge
• Freshman outfielder Skye Bolt entered Carolina as one of the top prospects in the country and the Woodstock, Ga., native has lived up to the reputation through the opening weeks.
• Bolt is leading the Tar Heels with the bat so far with a .431/.745/.545 slash line through the first three weeks. Bolt owns the 39th-highest batting average in the country this week and the 26th-highest slugging percentage.
• Fellow freshman Landon Lassiter is right behind Bolt in nearly every offensive category early on with a .381/.587/.548 slash line.
• Lassiter earned Astros Foundation College Classic All-Tournament Team honors after hitting .500 at the tournament with his second four-hit game of the season.
• Lassiter owns the sixth-highest on-base percentage in the country.
Even Distribution Throughout The Lineup
• Five different Tar Heels have tallied at least 10 RBIs this season and and six regulars are hitting .340 or better on the year.
• There have also been six Tar Heels who have scored double-digit runs.
• Junior Colin Moran is tied for the team with 19 RBIs but has been getting on base and leads the team with 22 runs scored, the fourth-most in the ACC.
Moran Taking His Free Passes
• Junior Colin Moran earned preseason first team All-America honors from Baseball America prior to the 2013 season and is expected to be the cornerstone of the Tar Heel offense.
• Moran has been pitched around through the first four weeks of the season and has drawn a team-high 18 walks.
• His 1.29 walks per game ratio ranks fourth in the country this week.
• As a result of reaching base at a .500 clip, Moran has scored 22 runs this season an average of 1.57 per contest.
• The ACC owns five of the top 12 run scorers per game in the nation in NC State's Trea Turner (1st, 1.86), UNC's Colin Moran (7th, 1.57), Virginia's Brandon Cogswell (8th, 1.53), Georgia Tech's Brandon Thomas (9th, 1.50) and UNC's Chaz Frank (T11th, 1.43).
Emanuel Continues Dominance
• Junior left-hander Kent Emanuel did something no other Tar Heel had ever done in the opener against Seton Hall when he became the first pitcher in UNC history to throw a shutout in the season opener.
• Emanuel held Seton Hall in check all night long as he surrendered just four singles and struck out five batters over his nine innings of work.
• The Pirates managed just one runner past second base in the contest as Emanuel recorded his second career shutout.
• The shutout was the first thrown by a Carolina pitcher since Emanuel closed the door on Texas in the 2011 College World Series.
• Emanuel recorded his second shutout of the year this past weekend in a 4-0 win at Wake Forest to improve to 3-0 on the year.
