The No. 22 North Carolina baseball team seems to be gaining confidence.
And after blanking Appalachian State Tuesday night 9-0, with No. 15 Miami is looming this weekend, the timing couldn't be better. According to Coach Mike Fox, the Hurricanes will be, "The best team we’ve played outside of UCLA."
What might give the team more confidence than anything — more than Hunter Williams' six-inning shutout, more than the bullpen's combined one-hit, three-inning effort — is the improved offensive efforts from a pair of key juniors.
While catcher Korey Dunbar has been playing extremely well for several weeks now, centerfielder Skye Bolt is starting to show signs as well. Both players had two-hit efforts against the Mountaineers and are hitting .367 and .291 respectively.
"You can see guys locked in a little bit more and they carry themselves a little bit better," Fox said.
Bolt, who is arguably the team's most talented all-around player, went 3-for-7 last weekend against Georgia Tech and says he feels great at the plate right now.
That confidence was put on display in the seventh inning, when Bolt drove an 0-1 pitch from ASU's Keith Walsh well over the left field fence — a two-run shot to push the Tar Heels' lead to the 9-0 mark at which the game would finish.
"(I was) just trying to get the head of the bat out really," Bolt said. "I was just feeling up the zone. And I chased one early in the zone and (Walsh) came in the zone (with) the next pitch. So you sing swing first pitch I’m big believer in definitely swinging second pitch."
After the ASU win, Bolt is leading the team with four home runs and third on the team with a .506 slugging percentage. The leader in that category is Dunbar, who's already hit his extra-base total from last season with 10.
