University of North Carolina Athletics
Matt Harvey
Photo by: Joe Bray
This Day In Tar Heel Baseball History: May 29
May 29, 2020 | Baseball
CHAPEL HILLÂ - North Carolina looks at "On This Day in Tar Heel History", as Tom Jensen shares his memories as an avid Tar Heel fan and regular at Boshamer Stadium.Â
May 29
For today's version of 'This Day in Recent Carolina Baseball History' we go back to May 29, 2009 for the opening game of the Chapel Hill regional against Dartmouth.Â
There's always a big philosophical divide when you're hosting a regional about whether you should go with your ace or your second best starter or your third best starter in the opening game of the regional against the 4 seed.Â
In an ideal world you would be able to get away with starting your third best starter and still win that game, and then have your ace available for the Saturday night winner's bracket game that usually determines the winner of the regional. But if you gamble Friday night and lose, then you have to win 4 games in a row over three days to advance and that's just about impossible.
In 2009 the Heels decided to go ahead and 'risk' pitching their third best starter- who within 4 years was the starting pitcher for the National League in the All Star game, Matt Harvey. Makes the decision a lot easier when that's you have as your third starter!
Matt threw a scoreless 1st. Dartmouth got a 2 out single and Matt promptly picked the guy off to end the inning. In the 2nd the Big Green loaded the bases with nobody out. Matt struck out the next guy and then got a double play to end the threat- putting guys on and then extinguishing them with double plays would become quite a theme of the evening.Â
In the bottom of the inning Mark Fleury led off with a single and with 1 out Mike Cavasinni got hit by a pitch to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Jacob Stallings laid down a bunt to get them in scoring position and ended up beating it out to load the bases. After an out Dustin Ackley came to the plate and hit a first pitch single to bring Mark home and make it 1-0.
Matt threw a 1-2-3 3rd and in the bottom of the frame the Heels bats got going again. Ryan Graepel led off with a single and after an out Mark Fleury connected for his second hit in as many innings to put two on. Garrett Gore singled and when the throw went home, late, he and Mark ended up in scoring position. The Heels led 2-0.
That brought up Mike Cavasinni and he got ahead 3-1. The Big Green would not have been expecting a bunt on that count and Cavi surprised them with a good one that scored Mark and upped the lead to 3-0.
Dartmouth got a couple hits with 1 out in the 4th, but Matt immediately erased the threat by drawing a double play. They got the leadoff runner on in the 5th and Matt once again immediately got a double play to stomp out the threat. The 6th inning unfolded identically to the 4th- back to back hits with 1 out, a double play from the next hitter to end the inning without any Big Green runs. In his first 6 innings Matt got 4 double plays and picked a guy off to get out of various pickles with runners on base.
In the bottom of the 6th Jacob Stallings and Ben Bunting hit back to back singles with 1 out. With 2 down Kyle Seager delivered a single up the middle to bring a run home and give the Heels a 4-0 lead.
The Big Green finally did get a couple of runs in the 7th and Matt Harvey exited after 6.1 innings where he allowed 9 hits and 2 walks but managed to keep the damage to 2 runs- he got himself in plenty of trouble but he also got himself out of most all of it. The gamble of starting the third starter- to the extent it's actually a gamble when the third starter is Matt Harvey- paid off.
Brian Moran came on and got the last 2 outs of the 7th, then followed that up with a 1-2-3 8th where he struck out the side. In the bottom of the 8th Mike Cavasinni hit a leadoff single and Jacob Stallings bunted him into scoring position. With 2 outs Dustin Ackley doubled down the left field line to bring Cavi home and put the Heels up 5-2.
Brian got a fly out, a strike out, and a fly out in a 1-2-3 9th to send the Heels into the winner's bracket game against Coastal Carolina Saturday with a 5-2 win. Brian got his 4th save of the season- after allowing a single to the first guy he faced, he got 8 outs in a row to end the game with 5 of them coming on strikeouts, continuing his incredible junior season.Â
One interesting footnote about this game and the issue of who you decide to start is that the Big Green had future Cubs star Kyle Hendricks on their team but chose not to start him against the Heels. That said when they started him the next day against Kansas he lost 16-0, so they probably wouldn't have been any better off if they'd thrown him against the Heels.
Dustin Ackley led the way for the Heels with 3 hits, including a double, and drove in a pair of runs. Ben Bunting (including a double and a run), Mark Fleury (including 2 runs), and Jacob Stallings each had a pair of hits. Mike Cavasinni, Garrett Gore, and Kyle Seager each singled and drove in a run and Ryan Graepel had a hit as well. The win made the Heels 43-16 for the season.Â
May 29
For today's version of 'This Day in Recent Carolina Baseball History' we go back to May 29, 2009 for the opening game of the Chapel Hill regional against Dartmouth.Â
There's always a big philosophical divide when you're hosting a regional about whether you should go with your ace or your second best starter or your third best starter in the opening game of the regional against the 4 seed.Â
In an ideal world you would be able to get away with starting your third best starter and still win that game, and then have your ace available for the Saturday night winner's bracket game that usually determines the winner of the regional. But if you gamble Friday night and lose, then you have to win 4 games in a row over three days to advance and that's just about impossible.
In 2009 the Heels decided to go ahead and 'risk' pitching their third best starter- who within 4 years was the starting pitcher for the National League in the All Star game, Matt Harvey. Makes the decision a lot easier when that's you have as your third starter!
Matt threw a scoreless 1st. Dartmouth got a 2 out single and Matt promptly picked the guy off to end the inning. In the 2nd the Big Green loaded the bases with nobody out. Matt struck out the next guy and then got a double play to end the threat- putting guys on and then extinguishing them with double plays would become quite a theme of the evening.Â
In the bottom of the inning Mark Fleury led off with a single and with 1 out Mike Cavasinni got hit by a pitch to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Jacob Stallings laid down a bunt to get them in scoring position and ended up beating it out to load the bases. After an out Dustin Ackley came to the plate and hit a first pitch single to bring Mark home and make it 1-0.
Matt threw a 1-2-3 3rd and in the bottom of the frame the Heels bats got going again. Ryan Graepel led off with a single and after an out Mark Fleury connected for his second hit in as many innings to put two on. Garrett Gore singled and when the throw went home, late, he and Mark ended up in scoring position. The Heels led 2-0.
That brought up Mike Cavasinni and he got ahead 3-1. The Big Green would not have been expecting a bunt on that count and Cavi surprised them with a good one that scored Mark and upped the lead to 3-0.
Dartmouth got a couple hits with 1 out in the 4th, but Matt immediately erased the threat by drawing a double play. They got the leadoff runner on in the 5th and Matt once again immediately got a double play to stomp out the threat. The 6th inning unfolded identically to the 4th- back to back hits with 1 out, a double play from the next hitter to end the inning without any Big Green runs. In his first 6 innings Matt got 4 double plays and picked a guy off to get out of various pickles with runners on base.
In the bottom of the 6th Jacob Stallings and Ben Bunting hit back to back singles with 1 out. With 2 down Kyle Seager delivered a single up the middle to bring a run home and give the Heels a 4-0 lead.
The Big Green finally did get a couple of runs in the 7th and Matt Harvey exited after 6.1 innings where he allowed 9 hits and 2 walks but managed to keep the damage to 2 runs- he got himself in plenty of trouble but he also got himself out of most all of it. The gamble of starting the third starter- to the extent it's actually a gamble when the third starter is Matt Harvey- paid off.
Brian Moran came on and got the last 2 outs of the 7th, then followed that up with a 1-2-3 8th where he struck out the side. In the bottom of the 8th Mike Cavasinni hit a leadoff single and Jacob Stallings bunted him into scoring position. With 2 outs Dustin Ackley doubled down the left field line to bring Cavi home and put the Heels up 5-2.
Brian got a fly out, a strike out, and a fly out in a 1-2-3 9th to send the Heels into the winner's bracket game against Coastal Carolina Saturday with a 5-2 win. Brian got his 4th save of the season- after allowing a single to the first guy he faced, he got 8 outs in a row to end the game with 5 of them coming on strikeouts, continuing his incredible junior season.Â
One interesting footnote about this game and the issue of who you decide to start is that the Big Green had future Cubs star Kyle Hendricks on their team but chose not to start him against the Heels. That said when they started him the next day against Kansas he lost 16-0, so they probably wouldn't have been any better off if they'd thrown him against the Heels.
Dustin Ackley led the way for the Heels with 3 hits, including a double, and drove in a pair of runs. Ben Bunting (including a double and a run), Mark Fleury (including 2 runs), and Jacob Stallings each had a pair of hits. Mike Cavasinni, Garrett Gore, and Kyle Seager each singled and drove in a run and Ryan Graepel had a hit as well. The win made the Heels 43-16 for the season.Â
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