University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Miami
Tar Heels Pound No. 4 Miami In Nightcap, 11-2
May 17, 2014 | Baseball
CORAL GABLES, Fla. --- Landon Lassiter had three hits and Wood Myers drove in three runs as North Carolina split a doubleheader at No. 4 Miami with an 11-2 win Friday night at Alex Rodriguez Park. Carolina scored four times in the first and led 11-1 after 4 in support of Benton Moss, who struck out nine and allowed just four hits and one run to pick up his fourth win of the season. The Tar Heels dropped the first game of the doubleheader 6-5 in 16 innings but rebounded to improve to 32-22 and 15-14 in the Atlantic Coast Conference with their third win of the year over a top-5 opponent.
After the heartbreak of the opener, Carolina responded in fine fashion with a four-run first against UM starter Andrew Suarez (5-3) in the nightcap. Michael Russell led off the game with a single and moved to third after a Lassiter hit and a Skye Bolt grounder. The Tar Heels then strung together three consecutive two-out hits, with Myers driving in a pair with a double before Raburn and Tyler Ramirez added RBI singles to make it 4-0.
Moss (4-2) gave up a leadoff double to Dale Carey in the bottom of the first, but the junior right-hander was lights out after that. Carey scored on a Zack Collins RBI groundout to make it 4-1 before Moss fanned David Thompson to end the first. From there, Moss allowed just three more hits over the next six innings on a night when most of the Tar Heel bullpen was unavailable after the 16-inning opener. The Enfield, N.C., product struck out nine Hurricanes, his highest total since setting down a career-high 12 against Pittsburgh on March 8.
Meanwhile, the Carolina offense showed no signs of fatigue after the opener, as the Tar Heels scored three times in both the second and third innings to effectively put the game out of reach. Lassiter and Myers had RBI singles in the second before Raburn's sac fly made it 7-1. UNC drove in three more runs in the third on sac flies by Lassiter and Bolt and a bases-loaded Parks Jordan HBP.
After Russell reached on a error and Raburn scored to make it 11-1 in the fourth, the runs dried up for both teams until the Hurricanes scored in the eighth off A.J. Bogucki. But the freshman righty made quick work of the hosts in the ninth, getting Jacob Heyward to ground back to the mound for the final out of the game.
Suarez allowed seven runs on nine hits in just 2.0 innings of work for Miami, which got 5.0 scoreless innings from Enrique Sosa and Derik Beauprez to end the game. The Canes made liberal use of their bench after the game got out of hand, as 21 different UM players saw action in the contest.
Carolina will go for the series win Saturday when Zac Gallen opposes lefty Bryan Radziewski on ESPNU at noon. With a victory or a Clemson loss, the Tar Heels can clinch a top-6 seed in the ACC tournament and avoid the Tuesday play-in games.
