University of North Carolina Athletics
Boshamer Stadium in 2006
Photo by: Joe Bray
This Day In Tar Heel Baseball History: April 23
April 23, 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 23
For today's version of 'This Day in Recent Carolina Baseball History' we go back to 2006 and 2010 for a double header sweep of the Wolfpack and the most memorable outing of Matt Harvey's Tar Heel career. Plus quick hits from 2008, 2014, and 2019.
The first Heels game on April 23, 2006 actually started the day before. They'd won the first game of the series Friday night in the much anticipated Andrew Miller-Andrew Brackman showdown and were looking to wrap up the series.
Robert Woodard was on the bump for the Heels and had it going as usual. He threw a 1-2-3 1st, a 1-2-3 2nd, and a 1-2-3 3rd to start the game.
In the bottom of the 3rd Bryan Steed drew a leadoff walk and Chad Flack doubled to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. A Josh Horton sac fly gave the Heels a 1-0 lead.
Woodard finally allowed some base runners but threw a scoreless 4th before State put a run on the board in the 5th. In the bottom of the inning Reid Fronk singled, Josh singled, and Jay Cox drew a walk to load the bases with 2 outs. Tim Federowicz fell behind in the count 1-2 before singling through the right side to bring around Reid and put the Heels back up 2-1.
The Pack got a run in the top of the 6th to tie the game. It would be almost 24 hours before there was another run.
Robert closed out his day with a scoreless 7th. His line was just 1 earned run and 5 hits allowed over 7 great innings of work.
Jonathan Hovis- an under appreciated but vital member of the 2006 team- came in to relieve him. He threw a 1-2-3 8th. And a scoreless 9th. And a 1-2-3 10th. He gave up a 2 out single in the 11th before retiring the side and finishing his day with 4 scoreless innings where he never allowed anyone for State to even get in scoring position.
We needed our pitching to be that strong because State's was doing just as well. From the 6th to the 11th innings the Heels only got 2 runners on base and they both came with 2 outs, a Tim Federowicz walk in the 8th and a Seth Williams single in the 11th.
The skies were looking increasingly ominous as Matt Danford came out to pitch in the 12th. The Pack got a lead off single and bunted him over to 2nd for the first runner either team had in scoring position in 6 innings.
And then the sky exploded and not only was there thunder and lightning, there was several hours of it. And of course this was at the old Bosh where drainage was not what it is at the new Bosh. So eventually it was decided to just come back the next day.
Future big leaguer Jonathan Diaz was at the plate with the go ahead run on 2nd for the restart. And he proceeded to hit a sharp liner to Josh Horton at short who caught it and tagged out the runner for an unassisted double play, extinguishing the 17 hour long Wolfpack scoring threat in the blink of an eye.
The Heels went down 1-2-3 once again in the 12th and State got runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out in the top of the 13th. Andrew Carignan came on and that was the end of opposing base runners for the game. He struck out the first batter he faced and got a pop out from the second one to end the threat and followed that up with a 1-2-3 14th.
It really was a beautiful baseball game. 2 rivals in the top 10 in the country with mutually incredible pitching performances. In some ways it was the first of the genre of marathon games between the teams that continued in the 2012 and 2013 ACC tournaments (the same team ended up winning every single one of them, I should note!)
I'd love to tell you it ended in some sort of heroic way...but sometimes- especially when you've been playing that long- you just have to take victory however you can get it.
Tim Federowicz doubled to lead off the bottom of the 14th. Seth Williams bunted back to the pitcher. He went to 3rd to try to get the lead runner.
There...was...no...one...covering...3rd. The ball flew down the 3rd base line as Tim coasted home to give the Heels an improbable ending to their 2 day long, 14 inning, 3-2 series clinching win.
Andrew Carignan got the win for his 5 up, 5 down performance after inheriting a pair of runners in the 13th. Robert Woodard's strong start and Jonathan Hovis' outstanding long relief outing made it possible for the Heels to stay in it while they weren't hitting. Tim Federowicz (including his pivotal double), Josh Horton, and Mike Cavasinni each had a pair of hits.
After all that excitement it was time to play again! And as good as the pitching had been the first 2 games of the series for the Heels, it peaked in the last one with Daniel Bard on the hill.
Daniel gave up a leadoff single in the 1st before retiring the side in order. Then he threw a 1-2-3 2nd. And a 1-2-3 3rd. After another leadoff single for the Pack in the 4th he once again retired the side in order.
In the bottom half of the inning Josh Horton singled and moved over to 2nd on a Tim Federowicz groundout. With 2 outs Benji Johnson hit the ball to 2nd...and the Pack fielder threw it away, allowing Josh to come home and give the Heels a 1-0 lead.
Daniel threw a scoreless 5th and in the bottom of the inning the Heels finally got a big blow. Reid Fronk worked a full count and drew a 2 out walk. On the very next pitch Chad Flack went deep to left center to grow the advantage to 3-0.
Daniel threw a 1-2-3 6th. And a 1-2-3 7th. And a 1-2-3 8th. Meanwhile the Heels got another in the 6th to make it 4-0.
In the 9th Daniel gave up a leadoff double, the third time that day State got the leadoff runner on. And for the third time that day Daniel retired the side in order after they did that. A foul out and a ground out were followed by Daniel's 8th strikeout of the day to put the finishing touch on a complete game, 4 hit shutout, one of the most dominant performances of his great Tar Heel career.
The fans had packed the Bosh for the opener of this series Friday night, starting to feel like this team might really be something special. By the end of the weekend they *knew* this team was something special.Â
The pitching allowed 1 earned run in 23 innings in the last 2 games of the series. Sweeping State is a rare feat- after this the Heels didn't do it again until 2018, another memorable weekend that we will get to soon.
Chad Flack had a pair of hits, including his big home run, and Mike Cavasinni had a pair of hits as well. The win pushed the Heels record to 34-8 on the season and 15-6 in ACC play.
Some players spend 3 or 4 years in our program but at the end of the day when you think about them, there's just one game that stands out above all the others. When it comes to Matt Harvey, that's his start on April 23rd, 2010 at Clemson for me.
The Heels came in 6-12 in ACC play. After four consecutive trips to Omaha, they were probably on the wrong side of the bubble for even getting into the NCAA tournament. The trip to Clemson provided 1 of 2 remaining opportunities to really get a compelling series win on the books...but the Heels had only won once there in the 20 seasons since the ACC started doing 3 game weekend series.
Matt threw a 1-2-3 1st. After a leadoff single in the 2nd he set down the side in order. And after a leadoff walk in the 3rd, he struck out the side.Â
In the top of the 4th Levi Michael singled with 1 out and after another out Dillon Hazlett singled to put runners on the corners with 2 down. That brought up Brett Knief. He hadn't received a ton of playing time to that point but he came up big here, doubling to bring home Levi and give the Heels a 1-0 lead. It would not be Brett's last big moment of the weekend.
Clemson got a pair in the 4th to go up 2-1 but the Heels came right back in the 5th. Jacob Stallings hit a leadoff single and with 2 outs Coach Jesse Wierzbicki reached on a FC to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Levi Michael put one in the right center gap to bring around both Jacob and Jesse and put the Heels back up 3-2.
Matt threw a scoreless 5th. And struck out the side in the 6th.
In the 7th Ben Bunting got hit by a pitch and with 2 outs Levi came up and delivered again- this time with a home run to right to give him 4 RBI on the day and give the Heels a 5-2 advantage.
Matt struck out the side in the 7th. And threw a scoreless 8th. In the 9th the Tigers hit a lead off home run before Matt got the next 2 outs. The next hitter was Matt's 14th strikeout of the day...but the ball got away, allowing the hitter to reach first and bringing the tying run to the plate.
So Matt just struck him out too- his 15th strikeout of the day, delivering the Heels the win that set them up to win the series- a series win that I think ended up being the difference between making the NCAA Tournament and staying at home.
I've seen plenty of starts where Heels pitchers were more unhittable- Clemson got 6 hits and scored 3 runs. But I haven't seen many that showed the level of grit Matt displayed that night to finish the game and get his team a win that they desperately needed in a season that had been full of frustration to that point.
Levi's 3 hits included a home run and a double and he either scored or drove in all 5 runs to lead the Heels' offense. Dillon Hazlett had 3 hits as well.
And quick hits from 2008, 2014, and 2019:
-In 2008 the Heels beat High Point 10-5 in Cary. Tim Federowicz (including a triple and a double and 3 RBI), Kyle Seager (including a double and 2 runs scored), and Chad Flack (including 3 runs scored) all had multi hit games. Garrett Gore had a hit that drove in a pair of runs.
Colin Bates got the win for 2.1 innings of scoreless relief work where he didn't give up any hits or walks. Brian Moran and Nate Striz each threw a scoreless inning to close it out- the bullpen went a combined 4.1 hitless innings .
-In 2014 the Heels beat Liberty 3-1 at the Bosh. The main story was the pitching. AJ Bogucki started with 3 strong innings where he struck out 4 and only allowed 1 run. Spencer Trayner followed and got the win for 3 scoreless innings where the Flames got just 1 hit. Trevor Kelley threw a 1-2-3 7th and Reilly Hovis closed it out with 4 strikeouts in 2 scoreless innings, including striking out the side in the 9th.
Adrian Chacon led the Heels offense with a pair of hits, one of which drove in the first run of the day and one of which resulted in him scoring the third run of the day. That came when Michael Russell doubled to bring him around. Adam Pate, Tyler Ramirez, and Landon Lassiter each had hits as well.
-In 2019 the Heels beat Coastal Carolina 6-1. The game was the highlight of Andrew Grogan's Carolina career- he went 7.2 innings and only allowed 1 run on 5 hits. Austin Love went the final 1.1 scoreless to close it out.
The highlight on offense was Ashton McGee and Brandon Martorano hitting back to back home runs in the 5th inning. That was one of a pair of hits for Ashton who both drove in and scored 2 runs. Dylan Enwiller and Michael Busch had the other hits in the win against 1 of the Heels' biggest midweek rivals.
April 23
For today's version of 'This Day in Recent Carolina Baseball History' we go back to 2006 and 2010 for a double header sweep of the Wolfpack and the most memorable outing of Matt Harvey's Tar Heel career. Plus quick hits from 2008, 2014, and 2019.
The first Heels game on April 23, 2006 actually started the day before. They'd won the first game of the series Friday night in the much anticipated Andrew Miller-Andrew Brackman showdown and were looking to wrap up the series.
Robert Woodard was on the bump for the Heels and had it going as usual. He threw a 1-2-3 1st, a 1-2-3 2nd, and a 1-2-3 3rd to start the game.
In the bottom of the 3rd Bryan Steed drew a leadoff walk and Chad Flack doubled to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. A Josh Horton sac fly gave the Heels a 1-0 lead.
Woodard finally allowed some base runners but threw a scoreless 4th before State put a run on the board in the 5th. In the bottom of the inning Reid Fronk singled, Josh singled, and Jay Cox drew a walk to load the bases with 2 outs. Tim Federowicz fell behind in the count 1-2 before singling through the right side to bring around Reid and put the Heels back up 2-1.
The Pack got a run in the top of the 6th to tie the game. It would be almost 24 hours before there was another run.
Robert closed out his day with a scoreless 7th. His line was just 1 earned run and 5 hits allowed over 7 great innings of work.
Jonathan Hovis- an under appreciated but vital member of the 2006 team- came in to relieve him. He threw a 1-2-3 8th. And a scoreless 9th. And a 1-2-3 10th. He gave up a 2 out single in the 11th before retiring the side and finishing his day with 4 scoreless innings where he never allowed anyone for State to even get in scoring position.
We needed our pitching to be that strong because State's was doing just as well. From the 6th to the 11th innings the Heels only got 2 runners on base and they both came with 2 outs, a Tim Federowicz walk in the 8th and a Seth Williams single in the 11th.
The skies were looking increasingly ominous as Matt Danford came out to pitch in the 12th. The Pack got a lead off single and bunted him over to 2nd for the first runner either team had in scoring position in 6 innings.
And then the sky exploded and not only was there thunder and lightning, there was several hours of it. And of course this was at the old Bosh where drainage was not what it is at the new Bosh. So eventually it was decided to just come back the next day.
Future big leaguer Jonathan Diaz was at the plate with the go ahead run on 2nd for the restart. And he proceeded to hit a sharp liner to Josh Horton at short who caught it and tagged out the runner for an unassisted double play, extinguishing the 17 hour long Wolfpack scoring threat in the blink of an eye.
The Heels went down 1-2-3 once again in the 12th and State got runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out in the top of the 13th. Andrew Carignan came on and that was the end of opposing base runners for the game. He struck out the first batter he faced and got a pop out from the second one to end the threat and followed that up with a 1-2-3 14th.
It really was a beautiful baseball game. 2 rivals in the top 10 in the country with mutually incredible pitching performances. In some ways it was the first of the genre of marathon games between the teams that continued in the 2012 and 2013 ACC tournaments (the same team ended up winning every single one of them, I should note!)
I'd love to tell you it ended in some sort of heroic way...but sometimes- especially when you've been playing that long- you just have to take victory however you can get it.
Tim Federowicz doubled to lead off the bottom of the 14th. Seth Williams bunted back to the pitcher. He went to 3rd to try to get the lead runner.
There...was...no...one...covering...3rd. The ball flew down the 3rd base line as Tim coasted home to give the Heels an improbable ending to their 2 day long, 14 inning, 3-2 series clinching win.
Andrew Carignan got the win for his 5 up, 5 down performance after inheriting a pair of runners in the 13th. Robert Woodard's strong start and Jonathan Hovis' outstanding long relief outing made it possible for the Heels to stay in it while they weren't hitting. Tim Federowicz (including his pivotal double), Josh Horton, and Mike Cavasinni each had a pair of hits.
After all that excitement it was time to play again! And as good as the pitching had been the first 2 games of the series for the Heels, it peaked in the last one with Daniel Bard on the hill.
Daniel gave up a leadoff single in the 1st before retiring the side in order. Then he threw a 1-2-3 2nd. And a 1-2-3 3rd. After another leadoff single for the Pack in the 4th he once again retired the side in order.
In the bottom half of the inning Josh Horton singled and moved over to 2nd on a Tim Federowicz groundout. With 2 outs Benji Johnson hit the ball to 2nd...and the Pack fielder threw it away, allowing Josh to come home and give the Heels a 1-0 lead.
Daniel threw a scoreless 5th and in the bottom of the inning the Heels finally got a big blow. Reid Fronk worked a full count and drew a 2 out walk. On the very next pitch Chad Flack went deep to left center to grow the advantage to 3-0.
Daniel threw a 1-2-3 6th. And a 1-2-3 7th. And a 1-2-3 8th. Meanwhile the Heels got another in the 6th to make it 4-0.
In the 9th Daniel gave up a leadoff double, the third time that day State got the leadoff runner on. And for the third time that day Daniel retired the side in order after they did that. A foul out and a ground out were followed by Daniel's 8th strikeout of the day to put the finishing touch on a complete game, 4 hit shutout, one of the most dominant performances of his great Tar Heel career.
The fans had packed the Bosh for the opener of this series Friday night, starting to feel like this team might really be something special. By the end of the weekend they *knew* this team was something special.Â
The pitching allowed 1 earned run in 23 innings in the last 2 games of the series. Sweeping State is a rare feat- after this the Heels didn't do it again until 2018, another memorable weekend that we will get to soon.
Chad Flack had a pair of hits, including his big home run, and Mike Cavasinni had a pair of hits as well. The win pushed the Heels record to 34-8 on the season and 15-6 in ACC play.
Some players spend 3 or 4 years in our program but at the end of the day when you think about them, there's just one game that stands out above all the others. When it comes to Matt Harvey, that's his start on April 23rd, 2010 at Clemson for me.
The Heels came in 6-12 in ACC play. After four consecutive trips to Omaha, they were probably on the wrong side of the bubble for even getting into the NCAA tournament. The trip to Clemson provided 1 of 2 remaining opportunities to really get a compelling series win on the books...but the Heels had only won once there in the 20 seasons since the ACC started doing 3 game weekend series.
Matt threw a 1-2-3 1st. After a leadoff single in the 2nd he set down the side in order. And after a leadoff walk in the 3rd, he struck out the side.Â
In the top of the 4th Levi Michael singled with 1 out and after another out Dillon Hazlett singled to put runners on the corners with 2 down. That brought up Brett Knief. He hadn't received a ton of playing time to that point but he came up big here, doubling to bring home Levi and give the Heels a 1-0 lead. It would not be Brett's last big moment of the weekend.
Clemson got a pair in the 4th to go up 2-1 but the Heels came right back in the 5th. Jacob Stallings hit a leadoff single and with 2 outs Coach Jesse Wierzbicki reached on a FC to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Levi Michael put one in the right center gap to bring around both Jacob and Jesse and put the Heels back up 3-2.
Matt threw a scoreless 5th. And struck out the side in the 6th.
In the 7th Ben Bunting got hit by a pitch and with 2 outs Levi came up and delivered again- this time with a home run to right to give him 4 RBI on the day and give the Heels a 5-2 advantage.
Matt struck out the side in the 7th. And threw a scoreless 8th. In the 9th the Tigers hit a lead off home run before Matt got the next 2 outs. The next hitter was Matt's 14th strikeout of the day...but the ball got away, allowing the hitter to reach first and bringing the tying run to the plate.
So Matt just struck him out too- his 15th strikeout of the day, delivering the Heels the win that set them up to win the series- a series win that I think ended up being the difference between making the NCAA Tournament and staying at home.
I've seen plenty of starts where Heels pitchers were more unhittable- Clemson got 6 hits and scored 3 runs. But I haven't seen many that showed the level of grit Matt displayed that night to finish the game and get his team a win that they desperately needed in a season that had been full of frustration to that point.
Levi's 3 hits included a home run and a double and he either scored or drove in all 5 runs to lead the Heels' offense. Dillon Hazlett had 3 hits as well.
And quick hits from 2008, 2014, and 2019:
-In 2008 the Heels beat High Point 10-5 in Cary. Tim Federowicz (including a triple and a double and 3 RBI), Kyle Seager (including a double and 2 runs scored), and Chad Flack (including 3 runs scored) all had multi hit games. Garrett Gore had a hit that drove in a pair of runs.
Colin Bates got the win for 2.1 innings of scoreless relief work where he didn't give up any hits or walks. Brian Moran and Nate Striz each threw a scoreless inning to close it out- the bullpen went a combined 4.1 hitless innings .
-In 2014 the Heels beat Liberty 3-1 at the Bosh. The main story was the pitching. AJ Bogucki started with 3 strong innings where he struck out 4 and only allowed 1 run. Spencer Trayner followed and got the win for 3 scoreless innings where the Flames got just 1 hit. Trevor Kelley threw a 1-2-3 7th and Reilly Hovis closed it out with 4 strikeouts in 2 scoreless innings, including striking out the side in the 9th.
Adrian Chacon led the Heels offense with a pair of hits, one of which drove in the first run of the day and one of which resulted in him scoring the third run of the day. That came when Michael Russell doubled to bring him around. Adam Pate, Tyler Ramirez, and Landon Lassiter each had hits as well.
-In 2019 the Heels beat Coastal Carolina 6-1. The game was the highlight of Andrew Grogan's Carolina career- he went 7.2 innings and only allowed 1 run on 5 hits. Austin Love went the final 1.1 scoreless to close it out.
The highlight on offense was Ashton McGee and Brandon Martorano hitting back to back home runs in the 5th inning. That was one of a pair of hits for Ashton who both drove in and scored 2 runs. Dylan Enwiller and Michael Busch had the other hits in the win against 1 of the Heels' biggest midweek rivals.
Players Mentioned
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OF/2B/SS
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