University of North Carolina Athletics
This Day In Tar Heel Baseball History: April 3
April 3, 2020 | Baseball
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April 3
For today's version of 'This Day in Recent Carolina Baseball History,' we go back to 2009 and 2011 for the start to a great weekend for one of Carolina Athletics' best families and a walk-off win to complete a sweep. We will also go into 2010 and 2013 for quick hits starring Jesse Wierzbicki, Brian Goodwin, and Chris Munnelly.
On April 3rd, 2009, the Heels opened a weekend series at Georgia Tech. I was following the game while driving to Detroit for the Final Four the next day.
Things started off well. Ben Bunting drew a lead off walk, Garrett Gore singled him over, and then Dustin Ackley walked to load the bases with nobody out. Kyle Seager hit a sac fly to get us a 1-0 lead but we lost a chance to blow it open early.
The Heels loaded the bases again in the top of the third inning with one out but emerged empty handed. In the bottom half of the inning the tables were turned- the Yelllow Jackets loaded the bases with 1 out, but Alex White coaxed a double play from the next batter to end the threat.
Georgia Tech scored a run to tie the game in the bottom of the 4th and after that, the game morphed into a pitcher's duel. Neither team managed any hits in the 5th, 6th, or 7th innings in the match up between White and Deck McGuire, who would also end up being a first round pick.
With two outs in the 8th Mark Fleury, in his homecoming game, singled to give the Heels their first hit since the 2nd inning. Ryan Graepel hit a single of his own to put runners on 1st and 2nd.
Then came a bunch of substitutions. The left handed Brett Thomas was due up for the Heels- Greg Holt was sent up as a pinch hitter to get a better match up against Georgia Tech's lefty pitcher. When Greg went up the Jackets put a right-handed pitcher in the game, so the Heels countered by sending up another lefty in Tarron Robinson.
After all of the substitutions, Tarron got down 0-2 in the count and then doubled down the left-field line to bring in Fleury and give the Heels a 2-1 lead. Mike Cavasinni was due up next and reached based on an error that allowed Graepel to come around and make it a 3-1 lead. I've been writing a lot this week about Cavi reaching on errors, and I don't think it's a fluke- worry about his speed caused opposing players to rush things and make mistakes they wouldn't have necessarily made if it had been someone else.
The Jackets got one back in the bottom of the 8th. Alex left the game after a customary master piece- 8 IP, 8 strike outs, only 4 hits and 2 runs allowed.
In the top of the 9th, Levi Michael went deep to get the lead back up to 4-2 and in the bottom half Colin Bates struck out 2 in a scoreless frame for the save.
The next day I got to the Final Four and it turned out my seats were right along the tunnel that everyone had to go through to get between the court and the locker rooms. Over the course of the weekend that allowed me to have a chat with Jim Nantz, shake John Thompson's hand, and yell at Karl Hess from close range among other things.
But the coolest memory was when Coach Robinson came out for the semifinal against Villanova on Saturday. Everyone was yelling at him and being the cool customer he is he just smiled and kept on going. But when he passed me I said, 'Coach Rob, that was a great hit by Tarron to win the game last night' and he turned around and looked up at me with a beaming face and said 'thank you!' That was my coolest 'celebrity' interaction of the weekend.
On April 3rd, 2011, the Heels already had the series win over Clemson and were looking to complete the sweep at the Bosh. We gave up a couple runs in the top of the first inning but after that Chris Munnelly really settled in and threw four scoreless innings from the 2nd to 5th without even letting anyone else get in scoring position.
The Heels quickly struck back in the bottom of the 1st. Ben Bunting and Levi Michael singled to lead off the game, and then Tommy Coyle walked to load the bases with nobody out. Jacob Stallings hit a groundout that brought in Ben and moved everyone else up a base. Colin Moran walked to load the bases again and then Chaz Frank hit a ground ball to 2nd that was going to drive in Levi anyway but then the ball got thrown away to bring Tommy in as well and just like that we were ahead 3-2.
In the 5th Levi hit a lead off single and then stole second. Jacob Stallings drew a walk to put two runners on, and then Colin singled to right to extend the Heels advantage to 4-2.
After that our bats went silent- we didn't get any hits in the 6th, 7th, or 8th. Clemson scored runs in the 6th and 8th to tie it up, after which R.C. Orlan and Cody Penny combined for a scoreless 9th.
In the bottom of the 9th Levi singled with 1 out, and then Tommy drew a walk to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Jacob hit a long fly ball that moved Levi up to 3rd.
That brought Colin up with runners on the corners and 2 down. He delivered a single to right center to give the Heels the 5-4 lead and the sweep against Clemson. That ended up not being an unusual sight at the Bosh in the 2010s- we also swept the Tigers at home in 2017, and took 2 of 3 in 2013 for an 8-1 record over the course of the decade.
Levi (3 hits and 3 runs), Colin (2 hits and RBI's on both of them), and Chris (4 strong innings after a tough first) made the sweep possible.
April 3rd Quick Hits-
-In 2010 the Heels lost Friday night at Maryland but came back with a vengeance in the second game of the series, winning 11-4.
There were a few especially notable performances:
-Coach Jesse Wierzbicki got the scoring going with a home run in the 2nd...and ended up reaching base all 5 times he came up. He got hit twice, drew a walk, hit a double, and came around to score 3 times.
-Brian Goodwin had a monster game, driving in six runs. He hit a three-run bomb in the 3rd when the game was still relatively close that made the score 5-0. In the 6th he came up with the bases loaded and cleared them with a triple.
-Mike Cavasinni led the way for the Heels with 3 hits, including a double.
-And finally a quick hit from 2013 to note one of the best outings of Chris Munnelly's career. He threw seven scoreless innings on the road at UNCW, struck out 8, and only allowed just 2 hits without walking anyone. Benton Moss threw a scoreless 8th and struck out two and Mason McCullough threw a perfect 9th to finish the shutout.
- We didn't necessarily need a pitching masterpiece that day though! The final score was 10-0. Colin Moran and Cody Stubbs had 3 hits each, both including a double, and Skye Bolt hit a home run to highlight the offense. We had lost our second game of the season the previous time out but I would say we rebounded pretty strong.
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