University of North Carolina Athletics
Matt Harvey
Photo by: Joe Bray
This Day In Tar Heel Baseball History: April 19
April 19, 2020 | Baseball
CHAPEL HILLÂ - North Carolina will begin to look at "On This Day in Tar Heel History", as Tom Jensen will share his memories as an avid Tar Heel fan and regular at Boshamer Stadium.Â
April 19
For today's version of 'This Day in Recent Carolina Baseball History' we go back to 2009 and 2011 for something no other Diamond Heels team has ever accomplished, and an important midweek game that helped get a struggling team back on the right track. Plus a quick hit from 2008.
On April 19th, 2009 the Heels already had the series win in hand against Miami. But a sweep for the dedication weekend of the new Bosh would be icing on the cake.
Something folks may not remember given Matt Harvey's eventually becoming a first round pick and a star in the big leagues is that he really struggled his sophomore year at UNC. Coming into this start against Miami he had only made it a total of 8 innings in his 3 previous starts and allowed 17 runs in those 8 innings. He really needed a positive outing to help get things turned around.
The first hitter of the game singled to right and turned wide around 1st. That was the end of him. It's unusual to have a player's defensive work during a season in RF be something that's really all that memorable but Garrett Gore in 2009 is an exception to the rule. He gunned the ball to 1st and threw the guy out returning to the bag- something he did about half a dozen times that season in addition to bringing a home run ball back over the wall in the 9th to win a game against Clemson the month before.
Garrett had been a very solid middle infielder his first few years and then halfway through his junior year kind of just lost the ability to throw the ball to 1st. The same thing happened to Chuck Knoblauch in his big league career. So he couldn't play short anymore- which wasn't too bad a thing for the Heels because it got Ryan Graepel into the every day lineup and he excelled.Â
But we still needed Garrett in the lineup, so he just learned to play right and all the sudden put in the best season of any Diamond Heel playing right that I can ever remember. That's a testament to his character and the teaching ability of our coaches that what could have been a bad development for his career actually ended up being a really positive thing for all parties.Â
Anyway Matt's been struggling and he gives up a hit to the first batter of the game but Garrett eliminates that problem. I think that really helped Matt settle in. He threw a scoreless 1st and 2nd before the Canes did get a run in the 3rd- even if his day had ended right there it would have been his best outing in 6 weeks- but there was much more to come.
The Heels couldn't get anything going on offense the first 3 innings. Matt threw a scoreless 4th to keep the deficit at 1-0.
In the bottom of the 4th Mark Fleury- the star of the day before- kept his big weekend going with a 1 out double. Levi Michael singled him in, and the game was tied at 1.
Matt threw a scoreless 5th. In the bottom half of the inning Dustin Ackley hit a 2 out single and Kyle Seager put a double in the right center gap to bring around Dusty and give the Heels a 2-1 lead. Although their time together at UNC was coming to an end they'd find themselves building rallies together again in the starting lineup for the Seattle Mariners just 2 years later.
Matt threw a scoreless 6th. Ryan Graepel knocked the first pitch of the bottom half of the inning out of the park to grow the lead to 3-1.
Matt finished up his day with a scoreless 7th. He needed a start to feel good about and he got one- 7 innings, just 1 run allowed, and leaving with a 2 run lead.
In the bottom half of the inning the Ackley-Seager combo struck again. Dusty doubled on the first pitch of the inning. Miami probably wasn't expecting a bunt from Kyle Seager in that situation given what a star he was but that's what they got- and they were taken so off guard that not only did it move Dusty to 3rd but also allowed Kyle to reach.Â
After an out Ryan Graepel came up and squeezed- and once again the bunt was so effective that Ryan got a single out of it in addition to bringing Dusty around to score and make it 4–1. It was 4 straight innings with a run and that span highlighted the diversity of the Heels bats- they could get one with the long ball in one inning and get one thanks to a couple of bunt hits in the next.
Brian Moran came in to pitch the 8th inning. That was the end of Miami's offense for the day. The 8th went strike out, strike out, ground out. The 9th went strike out, a walk to show a little bit of mercy, fly out, and a strike out to finish the game and the sweep. Brian got the save for his 2 scoreless innings, no hits, 4 strike outs performance.Â
The Heels have now had 15 series against Miami since the Hurricanes joined the league. That's the only time we've swept them. It also made it 4 straight series wins against them to bring our record to 4-1. Then the Canes went on a streak against us from 2010 to 2016 where they won 6 out of 7 times to take a 7-5 lead. But we bounced back with another 3 straight wins streak in 2017, 2018, and 2019 and currently hold an 8-7 lead. It's been a fiercely contested rivalry.
Dustin Ackley had 4 hits, including a triple and a double, and walked in his other appearance to make it 5 times up, 5 times on. Ryan Graepel, Kyle Seager, and Levi Michael each had a pair of hits as well. It would have been hard to ask for a much better dedication weekend for the new Bosh than that!
As the Heels prepared to face Coastal Carolina on April 19th, 2011 they were badly in need of a win. They'd been swept by State in Raleigh the weekend before- a pair of 1 run losses Friday and Saturday followed by a 10-2 blowout on Sunday.
The Chants scored a pair of runs in the 2nd and held the Heels to a pair of hits while shutting them out over the first 4 innings. It felt like the losing streak might extend to 4 games.
But things changed in the bottom of the 5th. Jacob Stallings hit a leadoff double and Greg Holt followed with a double of his own to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. Matt Roberts walked to load the bases.
Sometimes you just have to take what they give you and after that Tommy Coyle walked to bring in Jacob and make it 2-1, Chaz Frank got hit to bring in Greg and tie the game at 2, and Levi walked to bring in Matt and give the Heels a 3-2 lead.
The bases were still loaded and there was still nobody out as Colin Moran came to the plate. He put an end to the bases loaded situation with a double to left center that brought everyone around and made it a 6-2 Heels advantage.
Coach Jesse Wierzbicki singled to move Colin to 3rd and a productive double play brought Colin home to make it a 7 run 5th.
Kent Emanuel had come in and thrown a scoreless 5th in an unusual relief appearance. After the big inning for the Heels bats he came back out and struck out the side in the 6th.Â
The Heels got another in the bottom half when Matt Roberts singled and got replaced at 1st by a Tommy Coyle FC. Tommy went to 3rd on a single by Chaz Frank and came around to score on a hit by Levi Michael that made it 8-2.
The Chants got a run in the 7th but Kent got the win for 3 strong innings of work. Michael Morin came in with a runner on in the 8th and no one out and struck out a pair to escape the inning unscathed. He came back out for the 9th and retired the side around a 2 out walk to give the Heels a much needed win over an always tough Coastal team. After the rough weekend in Raleigh it was good to have things back on track.
And a quick hit from 2008:
-The Heels clinched the series over Boston College with a 6-0 win in Cary. That made it 6 straight series wins along with a tie to open up ACC play (spoiler alert: they won all the rest of the conference weekends after this one too.)Â
Adam Warren had a great outing, going 7 innings and only allowing 3 hits while striking out 6. Colin Bates and Tyler Trice had a pair of 1-2-3 innings to close it out.
Kyle Shelton (including an RBI double) and Garrett Gore (including a 2 run single that made the score 3-0 in the 6th) each had a pair of hits.
April 19
For today's version of 'This Day in Recent Carolina Baseball History' we go back to 2009 and 2011 for something no other Diamond Heels team has ever accomplished, and an important midweek game that helped get a struggling team back on the right track. Plus a quick hit from 2008.
On April 19th, 2009 the Heels already had the series win in hand against Miami. But a sweep for the dedication weekend of the new Bosh would be icing on the cake.
Something folks may not remember given Matt Harvey's eventually becoming a first round pick and a star in the big leagues is that he really struggled his sophomore year at UNC. Coming into this start against Miami he had only made it a total of 8 innings in his 3 previous starts and allowed 17 runs in those 8 innings. He really needed a positive outing to help get things turned around.
The first hitter of the game singled to right and turned wide around 1st. That was the end of him. It's unusual to have a player's defensive work during a season in RF be something that's really all that memorable but Garrett Gore in 2009 is an exception to the rule. He gunned the ball to 1st and threw the guy out returning to the bag- something he did about half a dozen times that season in addition to bringing a home run ball back over the wall in the 9th to win a game against Clemson the month before.
Garrett had been a very solid middle infielder his first few years and then halfway through his junior year kind of just lost the ability to throw the ball to 1st. The same thing happened to Chuck Knoblauch in his big league career. So he couldn't play short anymore- which wasn't too bad a thing for the Heels because it got Ryan Graepel into the every day lineup and he excelled.Â
But we still needed Garrett in the lineup, so he just learned to play right and all the sudden put in the best season of any Diamond Heel playing right that I can ever remember. That's a testament to his character and the teaching ability of our coaches that what could have been a bad development for his career actually ended up being a really positive thing for all parties.Â
Anyway Matt's been struggling and he gives up a hit to the first batter of the game but Garrett eliminates that problem. I think that really helped Matt settle in. He threw a scoreless 1st and 2nd before the Canes did get a run in the 3rd- even if his day had ended right there it would have been his best outing in 6 weeks- but there was much more to come.
The Heels couldn't get anything going on offense the first 3 innings. Matt threw a scoreless 4th to keep the deficit at 1-0.
In the bottom of the 4th Mark Fleury- the star of the day before- kept his big weekend going with a 1 out double. Levi Michael singled him in, and the game was tied at 1.
Matt threw a scoreless 5th. In the bottom half of the inning Dustin Ackley hit a 2 out single and Kyle Seager put a double in the right center gap to bring around Dusty and give the Heels a 2-1 lead. Although their time together at UNC was coming to an end they'd find themselves building rallies together again in the starting lineup for the Seattle Mariners just 2 years later.
Matt threw a scoreless 6th. Ryan Graepel knocked the first pitch of the bottom half of the inning out of the park to grow the lead to 3-1.
Matt finished up his day with a scoreless 7th. He needed a start to feel good about and he got one- 7 innings, just 1 run allowed, and leaving with a 2 run lead.
In the bottom half of the inning the Ackley-Seager combo struck again. Dusty doubled on the first pitch of the inning. Miami probably wasn't expecting a bunt from Kyle Seager in that situation given what a star he was but that's what they got- and they were taken so off guard that not only did it move Dusty to 3rd but also allowed Kyle to reach.Â
After an out Ryan Graepel came up and squeezed- and once again the bunt was so effective that Ryan got a single out of it in addition to bringing Dusty around to score and make it 4–1. It was 4 straight innings with a run and that span highlighted the diversity of the Heels bats- they could get one with the long ball in one inning and get one thanks to a couple of bunt hits in the next.
Brian Moran came in to pitch the 8th inning. That was the end of Miami's offense for the day. The 8th went strike out, strike out, ground out. The 9th went strike out, a walk to show a little bit of mercy, fly out, and a strike out to finish the game and the sweep. Brian got the save for his 2 scoreless innings, no hits, 4 strike outs performance.Â
The Heels have now had 15 series against Miami since the Hurricanes joined the league. That's the only time we've swept them. It also made it 4 straight series wins against them to bring our record to 4-1. Then the Canes went on a streak against us from 2010 to 2016 where they won 6 out of 7 times to take a 7-5 lead. But we bounced back with another 3 straight wins streak in 2017, 2018, and 2019 and currently hold an 8-7 lead. It's been a fiercely contested rivalry.
Dustin Ackley had 4 hits, including a triple and a double, and walked in his other appearance to make it 5 times up, 5 times on. Ryan Graepel, Kyle Seager, and Levi Michael each had a pair of hits as well. It would have been hard to ask for a much better dedication weekend for the new Bosh than that!
As the Heels prepared to face Coastal Carolina on April 19th, 2011 they were badly in need of a win. They'd been swept by State in Raleigh the weekend before- a pair of 1 run losses Friday and Saturday followed by a 10-2 blowout on Sunday.
The Chants scored a pair of runs in the 2nd and held the Heels to a pair of hits while shutting them out over the first 4 innings. It felt like the losing streak might extend to 4 games.
But things changed in the bottom of the 5th. Jacob Stallings hit a leadoff double and Greg Holt followed with a double of his own to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. Matt Roberts walked to load the bases.
Sometimes you just have to take what they give you and after that Tommy Coyle walked to bring in Jacob and make it 2-1, Chaz Frank got hit to bring in Greg and tie the game at 2, and Levi walked to bring in Matt and give the Heels a 3-2 lead.
The bases were still loaded and there was still nobody out as Colin Moran came to the plate. He put an end to the bases loaded situation with a double to left center that brought everyone around and made it a 6-2 Heels advantage.
Coach Jesse Wierzbicki singled to move Colin to 3rd and a productive double play brought Colin home to make it a 7 run 5th.
Kent Emanuel had come in and thrown a scoreless 5th in an unusual relief appearance. After the big inning for the Heels bats he came back out and struck out the side in the 6th.Â
The Heels got another in the bottom half when Matt Roberts singled and got replaced at 1st by a Tommy Coyle FC. Tommy went to 3rd on a single by Chaz Frank and came around to score on a hit by Levi Michael that made it 8-2.
The Chants got a run in the 7th but Kent got the win for 3 strong innings of work. Michael Morin came in with a runner on in the 8th and no one out and struck out a pair to escape the inning unscathed. He came back out for the 9th and retired the side around a 2 out walk to give the Heels a much needed win over an always tough Coastal team. After the rough weekend in Raleigh it was good to have things back on track.
And a quick hit from 2008:
-The Heels clinched the series over Boston College with a 6-0 win in Cary. That made it 6 straight series wins along with a tie to open up ACC play (spoiler alert: they won all the rest of the conference weekends after this one too.)Â
Adam Warren had a great outing, going 7 innings and only allowing 3 hits while striking out 6. Colin Bates and Tyler Trice had a pair of 1-2-3 innings to close it out.
Kyle Shelton (including an RBI double) and Garrett Gore (including a 2 run single that made the score 3-0 in the 6th) each had a pair of hits.
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