This Day In Tar Heel Baseball History: May 7

CHAPEL HILL - 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.

May 7
For today, we go back to 2009, 2011, and 2016 for a very unusual winning pitcher, a walk-off hit by an under appreciated Tar Heel great, and a walk-off home run against the team that ended up getting the #2 national seed in the NCAA Tournament. Plus quick hits from 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, and 2019.

The Heels were supposed to play Longwood early in the 2009 season and the game got snowed out and rescheduled for Thursday, May 7th. The problem with that is we started our series against State the next day, and really needed to conserve our pitching for the weekend. But even though baseball is baseball, you probably assume a top 10 team can score enough runs against the Longwood Lancers to make sure you don't have to stretch out too much pitching to get the win.

That did not prove to be the case. Longwood scored 3 runs in the 2nd and another in the 3rd to take a 4-0 lead.

In the bottom of the 3rd Ben Bunting drew a walk and Dustin Ackley went deep to right to cut the deficit to 4-2. And after Jimmy Messer threw a scoreless 4th, Mark Fleury hit a solo shot in the bottom of the inning to get to within 4-3.

Greg Holt came in to pitch in the 5th with a couple runners on base and 2 down and got a strikeout to end the threat. In the bottom of the inning Ben Bunting drew a walk, moved to 3rd on an error, and came around on a Dustin Ackley single that tied the game at 4. It would be a l-o-n-g time before anyone else scored.

Greg threw a scoreless 6th. In the bottom of the inning Garrett Gore singled and stole 2nd with nobody out but didn't come around.

Greg threw a 1-2-3 7th and finished his day with 2.1 scoreless innings where he struck out 3 and only allowed 1 base runner. In the bottom of the inning Levi Michael got to 2nd with nobody out but once again the Heels couldn't get him in.

Colin Bates came in for the 8th and struck out the last 2 hitters of the inning after a 1 out single. Then he threw a 1-2-3 9th. And a 1-2-3 10th. Colin finished his awesome outing having gone 3 innings where he struck out 5 and only allowed 1 runner to reach base.

After a leadoff walk in the 11th the Heels went to Brian Moran. He got a double play on the very first pitch he threw, and then struck out the next batter.

Between the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th the Heels only got 1 hit and never had a runner in scoring position. At this point the coaching staff had to make a choice. Brian Moran could certainly throw all night- he'd shown that in a heroic outing against Virginia a couple months before. But did you want to burn him out on a Thursday night against Longwood and then not be able to use him when you needed to against State over the weekend?

They did not want to burn Brian out. They did not want to use any more of the core relievers that night. So they brought in...backup catcher Jacob Stallings to pitch the 12th.

I love all our players but if I'm going to be honest about it, Jacob is my all time favorite. He was the best defensive catcher I've ever seen in college baseball. After throwing out an incredible 32 guys trying to steal bases his junior year he didn't get to repeat that feat his senior year because opposing teams only even *tried* to steal 29 times. His legend was such that opposing teams just gave up that part of their games.

Beyond that aspect of playing catcher, he's so good at working with pitchers that virtually everyone in the Pittsburgh Pirates rotation has requested him as their personal catcher. Once everyone has more or less asked for you as their personal catcher that makes you the starting catcher, and the Pirates have given him that role for this season if we ever get to play it.

Jacob had trouble hitting his freshman year. On Opening Day this year I texted to tell him that we had a freshman catcher, Eric Grintz, who was #5 just like Jacob and that he had hit a 2 run double in his first at bat, so he was living up to the number. Jacob responded with the third person observation, 'haha he's off to a much better start offensively than Jacob was.'

Jacob did have a .614 OPS his freshman year. And that extra base hit Eric got in his first at bat matched Jacob's total for his entire freshman year. But Jacob hit around .300 his other three years as a Tar Heel and ended up with a career total of 56 doubles, putting him in the top ten in program history.

But for all his fielding and hitting the one game from Jacob's career I remember the most is when he came in to pitch on a Thursday night against Longwood. It took him 2 pitches to get a fly out from the first guy he faced. Another 2 pitches to get a groundout from the next guy. And after the third batter worked a full count, Jacob struck him out swinging for a 1-2-3 inning.

In the bottom of the inning Dustin Ackley went deep to right for his second home run of the game to win it for us 5-4 and give Jacob the win for his unexpected relief outing.

Just to close the book on Jacob's pitching career he made one other appearance that season and threw a scoreless inning with a strikeout that time too. And last year he got to throw a inning in the big leagues and got a 1-2-3 inning against the Cardinals, setting down Tyler O'Neill, Tommy Edman, and Dexter Fowler. So his short pitching career has been quite distinguished.

Dustin Ackley had 3 hits for the Heels, including a pair of home runs, and drove in 4 and scored 3 times. Garrett Gore had a pair of hits and Mark Fleury's solo shot was key to the victory.

On his radio show the next week Coach Fox said it had been a mistake to schedule a Thursday night game going into an ACC weekend and that it wasn't something he would do again, and he's held to that. But that Thursday night against Longwood, whether we should have done it or not, is still a warm memory more than a decade later.

On May 7, 2011 the Heels were coming off a Friday night win against Maryland and trying to clinch the series and burnish their national seed case.

The game started off well. Kent Emanuel threw a scoreless 1st and 2nd. In the bottom of the 2nd Ben Bunting and Jacob Stallings singled to put runners on the corners with nobody out. A ground out from Seth Baldwin brought Ben home to make it 1-0.

Kent threw a 1-2-3 3rd, striking out the last couple hitters of the inning. In the bottom half Levi Michael hit a 2 out single and Colin Moran followed with a double down the line to right that brought Levi around and made it 2-0.

Kent was dealing. He threw a 1-2-3 4th. And a scoreless 5th. And a scoreless 6th. He started his day with 6 shutout innings where he allowed only 3 hits.

In the bottom of the 6th Colin Moran hit a leadoff double. A Ben Bunting single moved him to 3rd and he came in on a Jacob Stallings sac fly to make it a 3-0 advantage.

But then Maryland got 3 runs in the top of the 7th to tie it up and got another runner to 2nd on top of that. Greg Holt came on and struck out the last hitter of the inning to escape further damage.

The Heels went down 1-2-3 in the 7th. And then Maryland scored a run to go ahead 4-3 in the 8th. And the Heels went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning. Michael Morin came in and threw a 1-2-3 9th, striking out the last couple batters he faced, but the Heels went to the bottom of the inning on the brink of defeat.

Jacob Stallings doubled with 1 out in the 9th but after another out the Heels were down to their last shot. Greg Holt came up to pinch hit and found himself in a pretty unusual situation. He had given up the go ahead run to Maryland pitching in the 8th so in order to avoid getting tagged with the loss, he had to take care of business hitting.

Greg's senior year he was really used as a two way player to a greater extent than anyone else in recent program history until maybe Joey Lancellotti in the short part of a season we had this year.

He thrived in both roles. He was a vital relief pitcher, making 33 appearances and striking out 68 in 60.2 innings on his way to a 7-2 record on the season that made him third on the team in wins.

And he was also a key hitter. In 68 at bats he hit .397 with an OPS of 1.079. He actually had the best numbers on the whole team in both of those categories, although he didn't have enough at bats to officially qualify for the lead in either of those categories.

He came up big with the bat here- he doubled down the left field line to tie the game at 4 and get himself off the hook for the loss.

Michael Morin threw a 1-2-3 top of the 10th. In the bottom half Levi Michael drew a leadoff walk.

You have to love it anytime you have a superstar who's just willing to do whatever it takes to help his team win and that was exemplified in the next at bat. Colin Moran dropped down a bunt- something the Terps can't have been expecting- and not only was it good enough to move the runner over, the pitcher threw the ball away, letting Levi get to 3rd and Colin to 2nd with nobody out. Coach Jesse Wierzbicki was issued an intentional pass to load the bases.

That brought up Ben Bunting, who I consider to be one of the most underrated players in program history. He hit .304 over the course of his career and his 266 career hits put him 7th in the all time team record book. He already had a couple hits on this day. He made it 3- he singled to bring in Levi and give the Heels the 5-4 win and somewhat remarkably their first series win since taking one from FSU in Tallahassee four weeks earlier.

Michael Morin got the win for 2.2 scoreless innings of relief where he didn't allow any hits. Ben's 3 hits led 4 Heels who had multi hit games. Colin Moran (a pair of doubles), Jacob Stallings (including the double that led to tying the game in the 9th), and Tommy Coyle each had a pair of hits as well.

On May 7, 2016 the Heels hosted #5 Louisville at the Bosh. After a strong final month of the season the Cardinals ended up as the #2 national seed in the NCAA Tournament, so this was an incredibly good baseball team.

JB Bukauskas had the start for the Heels and threw a scoreless 1st and 2nd before Louisville scored a run in the 3rd. JB got right back to it with a scoreless 4th and 5th and a 1-2-3 6th.

In the bottom of the 6th Zack Gahagan drew a 2 out walk. Brandon Riley fell behind 0-2 but then tripled down the RF line to bring Zack around and tie the game up at 1.

JB threw a scoreless 7th and in the bottom the Heels struck again. With 1 out Brian Miller walked, Adam Pate moved him over with a single, and Tyler Ramirez walked to load the bases. Logan Warmoth hit a fly ball to deep enough left to bring Brian in to score and give the Heels a 2-1 lead.

JB threw a 1-2-3 8th and got the first out of the 9th before giving up a single and leaving. It wasn't an especially dominant performance by his standards- he gave up 9 hits over 8.1 innings. But he got outs when he needed to and as a result only allowed 1 earned run despite all those base runners. One thing that helped to strand people after they'd reached base was 8 strikeouts.

Hansen Butler got the second out of the inning and it looked like the Heels were primed for a big victory. But then another Louisville hit put runners on 1st and 2nd. And another brought the tying run around to score.

This is the kind of situation a team can fall apart in. But AJ Bogucki got a FC to end the inning, and then threw a scoreless 10th.

Logan Warmoth led off the 10th, toward the end of his sophomore year. He was one of those guys who just made incredible strides over the course of his career. His freshman year he had a .597 OPS largely because his slugging percentage was only .282. He had 5 extra base hits in 195 at bats and at that point the thought he would ever be a much of anything round draft pick, much less a first round draft pick, would have been hard to imagine.

But he worked hard and by the next season he'd quickly transformed into a star- .337 with an OPS of .883. And his junior year he was able to maintain the same average- .336- while also greatly increasing his power- an OPS of .958. It was pretty special to watch him grow as a player over those three years and he did indeed become the first round pick of the Toronto Blue Jays. I got to see him play in a couple AA games last summer and hopefully he'll continue that march to the bigs.

Logan had a lot of big moments in his last couple years in the program. But the most memorable one came here. He fell behind 0-1. Then he took a ball. And then he knocked the ball out of the park for a game winning home run to give the Heels a win over one of the best teams in the country- a team that featured guys like Brendan McKay and Will Smith who are already making their mark in the big leagues.

AJ got the win for his scoreless 10th. Brandon Riley (including his big triple) and Adam Pate each had a pair of hits. In addition to his game winning home run Logan also drove in the go ahead run in the 7th.

I knew it was going to be a good day when I had lunch with Michael Russell's parents before the game, and then Brian and Colin Moran's mom joined us at the last second in a very happy surprise. It was her first game back at the Bosh since her sons both moved on to pro ball and her presence seemed to bring back some of the magic from those years

When we parted ways we had no idea we'd see each other again in a week and a half in a much bigger ballpark, but we'll get there soon.

And quick hits from 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, and 2019:

-In 2008 the Heels beat North Florida 11-5 to push their record on the season to 40-8. Garrett Gore led the way for the Heels, getting 3 hits and scoring 3 runs. 6 other guys had multi hit games- Dustin Ackley (including a double and 3 RBI), Brett Thomas (including a double, an RBI, and a run), Seth Williams (including a double and a couple runs), Tim Federowicz (including a double), Kyle Seager (including a double), and Kyle Shelton. Tim Fedroff had a hit and drove in 3 runs, and Chad Flack had a hit and drove in a run as well.

5 Heels relievers combined for 6.1 scoreless innings of relief. Colin Bates was the first and got the win for 1.1 scoreless innings, pushing his season record to 5-0. Nate Striz threw a scoreless 5th and 6th without allowing any hits, Logan Munson threw a scoreless 7th, Rob Wooten threw a 1-2-3 8th and struck out the last couple guys he faced, and Tim Federowicz finished out the game by striking out the side in the 9th.

-In 2010 the Heels kicked off a weekend series against Wake Forest at the Bosh with an 18-5 win. Dillon Hazlett led the way for the Heels with 3 doubles, driving in 6 and scoring twice. Levi Michael also had 3 hits, including a home run, and scored 4 times and drove in 2. Jacob Stallings (including a double) and Brian Goodwin (including 4 runs scored) each had a pair of hits. Ryan Graepel hit a home run and drove in and scored a pair of runs. Mike Cavasinni had a double and scored a couple runs. And Coach Jesse Wierzbicki had a single and drove in a couple runs too. Everyone hit.

Matt Harvey threw 6 solid innings to earn the win. Cody Penny threw a scoreless 7th and Garrett Davis threw a scoreless 9th, striking out the final Wake batter with the bases loaded to close out the win.

-In 2013 the Heels beat James Madison 9-5. Landon Lassiter led the way for the Heels with 3 hits, including a pair of doubles, driving in 3 and scoring 2. Mike Zolk also had a pair of hits, including a double, and drove in a run. Cody Stubbs doubled and drove in 3 runs, Parks Jordan had a hit and scored twice and drove in a run, and Colin Moran had a hit and drove in and scored a run.

Hobbs Johnson started and pushed his record on the season to 4-0 thanks to 5 scoreless innings where he allowed only one hit. Tate Parrish came in with a runner on base in the 7th and got a strikeout to end the inning and then got a strikeout for the first out of the 8th before giving way to Trent Thornton. Trent threw 1.2 scoreless innings and only allowed one runner to reach to close out the game. The win gave the Heels a 43-4 record for the season.

-In 2014 the Heels went to Elon and won 12-6. Parks Jordan (including a triple, a double, and a single, 3 RBI, and 2 runs scored) and Tyler Ramirez (including a double and 2 runs scored) each had 3 hits. Korey Dunbar (including an RBI and a run), Colby Barnette (including an RBI and a run), and Zach Daly each had multi hit games as well. Joe Dudek hit a home run and drove in 3 and Tom Zengel had a double and drove in a pair

Taylore Cherry started and got the second win of his Tar Heel career, although the first one was perhaps more memorable. Spencer Trayner came in in the 7th and retired all 6 hitters he faced, striking out 5 of them, before giving way to Reilly Hovis who struck out the final Phoenix hitter of the day.

-In 2019 the Heels beat Winthrop 13-9. Aaron Sabato led the way with 3 hits, including a home run, and drove in 4 and scored a couple runs. Jackson Hesterlee hit a home run and a double and drove in 4 runs and Ashton McGee also hit a home run and a double and both drove in and scored 3 runs. Brandon Martorano (scoring a couple of runs) and Michael Busch each had a pair of hits, and Dylan Enwiller hit a double. Austin Love got the win for 1.2 scoreless innings where he had a couple strikeouts.

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Michael Busch

Hansen Butler

Dylan Enwiller

Zack Gahagan

Eric Grintz

Jackson Hesterlee

Joey Lancellotti

Austin Love

Brandon Martorano

Ashton McGee

Brandon Riley

Aaron Sabato

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