Baseball Needs No Luck in Sweep

In addition to sporting shamrock-colored caps, the North Carolina baseball team celebrated St. Patrick's Day on Sunday at Boshamer Stadium by holding a parade in the bottom of the first inning.

Trailing 1-0 in the first, the Tar Heels sent 11 batters to the plate and scored seven runs. They added 13 more the rest of the game, pounding Maryland 20-8 to complete a three-game weekend sweep.

"Hitting is definitely contagious," said UNC left fielder Sean Farrell. "When the first couple guys get up there and get hits, it just kind of passes down."

Adam Greenberg got things started for the Tar Heels, doubling down the first-base line, thanks in part to a slow roll on the outfield grass, which was soaked from morning showers.

After Russ Adams grounded out, Farrell drove Greenberg in with a double, one of his four RBIs on the day.

Two errors and a bobbled line drive on the next three plays plated two runs and put runners on first and third. A single by Mell Adams scored one of them, a double by Ron Braun scored the other, and then a single to left by Chad Prosser put the Tar Heels up 6-1.

Starter Steve Schmoll then got the hook in favor of Matt Basinger. Basinger got Greenberg out on a pop fly, and, after balking home a run to make the score 7-1, got Russ Adams on a pop-up to stop the insanity.

"They made some mistakes, but we followed up with some base hits and got a couple big swings of the bat when we needed it," said UNC coach Mike Fox. "It was one of those innings where things went right for us and not real good for them."

Things only got worse for the Terps in the second inning when 3-4-5 hitters Farrell, Chris Maples and Jeremy Cleveland hit back-to-back-to-back homers to the same spot in right field.

The 10-1 lead provided enough padding for UNC starter Daniel Moore. Moore gave up a homer to Maryland shortstop John McCurdy in the first inning, but he then settled down to keep the Terps scoreless for the next three.

"It was a mistake pitch that I left up in the zone," Moore said of the homer. "The only thing I did after that was just try to spot my pitches a little bit better than I had in that particular at-bat."

Despite picking up the victory, Moore struggled toward the end of his outing. He allowed three runs in the fifth inning and two more in the sixth before being replaced by reliever Whitley Benson.

But the win was never in doubt. UNC tallied two runs in the fourth inning and four more in the fifth and seventh. Benson pitched three innings to record his third save of the season.

The victory, coupled with wins on Friday and Saturday, gave the Tar Heels (10-8, 3-0 in the ACC) a four-game winning streak, their longest of the season.

Friday, Scott Autrey retired 20 of the Maryland's first 21 batters before getting into trouble in the seventh. Maryland (13-5, 0-3) erased a 2-0 deficit, scoring three runs on four straight hits. But UNC tied the game in the seventh and a pinch-hit sacrifice fly by Chase Younts in the bottom of the eighth to put UNC up 4-3 proved to be the game-winner.

On Saturday, Ryan Blake had a career-high five hits and drove in three runs as UNC beat Maryland 8-2. Kevin Brower and Garry Bakker combined to allow just six hits, sending Maryland to its second consecutive loss.

Sunday's win came without Blake, who was held out of the lineup after colliding with Prosser chasing a fly ball on Saturday. UNC also was without the offense of Russ Adams, who was the only starter not to record a hit. Adams went 0-for-5, snapping an 11-game hitting streak.

Still, 20 hits proved enough to give UNC its first 3-0 conference start since 1998.

Despite the trio of wins, Fox realizes there's much more to ACC success than taking three from the Terrapins.

Said Fox: "I'll go home, my wife will say, 'Oh good, you're 3-0,' and the first thing I'll think is, 'Yeah, I got 21 more to go.' Baseball's just a worrying kind of sport. I'll enjoy this one, though, tonight."

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.