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The Daily Tar Heel

UNC baseball tames the Stags in 11-0 victory

The UNC baseball team took on Fairfield in a three game series throughout the weekend.
The UNC baseball team took on Fairfield in a three game series throughout the weekend.

The bats started hot for the No. 11 North Carolina baseball team and never cooled off. 

In Game 3 of its series against Fairfield, UNC scored in six different innings in an 11-0 win on Sunday at Boshamer Stadium. 

The Tar Heels (9-1) got started early against the Stags (3-3), as sophomore first baseman Brian Miller’s double to start the bottom of the first inning sparked a four-run inning for UNC.  

Senior shortstop Elijah Sutherland continued his strong weekend by driving in junior outfielder Tyler Ramirez in the third inning to put the Tar Heels up 5-0. 

North Carolina added two more runs in the fourth inning, producing a dominant 7-0 lead before the halfway point of the game. 

The first and only home run of the game came in the seventh inning, as first-year Brandon Riley hit a solo shot over the right-field wall. The home run was Riley’s first of his career. 

North Carolina’s great hitting day was supported by a solid performance from sophomore starting pitcher Jason Morgan. Morgan threw six scoreless innings and allowed only three hits. 

A plethora of relief pitchers came into the game in the final innings, all with the intent of keeping the shutout.

Coach Mike Fox used the lead as an incentive to give five relief pitchers the opportunity to see action on the mound. The bullpen did its job, as the relief pitchers kept the Stags off the scoreboard in the final three innings.  

Quotable

“We always play like the score is zero to zero … We try to play like it’s a tie game throughout the entire game. You can never score too many runs.” — Riley on how UNC stays motivated when leading by a lot of runs late in the game. 

Notable

This game concluded UNC’s last full series against nonconference opponents. The Tar Heels first ACC series will be against Pittsburgh in Chapel Hill starting on Friday. 

Three numbers that matter

6: Sutherland tallied six RBIs in the three-game series. Sutherland batted in the bottom three of the Tar Heels' order in all three of the games. 

7: Seven strikeouts for Morgan, a career-high. 

2: With the win Sunday, North Carolina has already tallied two series sweeps in 2016 — the same number of sweeps the Tar Heels amassed in all of 2015. 

What’s next?

North Carolina hosts Gardner Webb at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. 

@Evan_Chronis

sports@dailytarheel.com

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