Tar Heels survive late rally

Although North Carolina’s baseball team was facing East Carolina at home on Tuesday, the ninth inning was accompanied by the Seminole chant and traditional tomahawk chop associated with Florida State University.

Pirates fans, eager to remind the No. 15 Tar Heels (38-14-1) of the series sweep they suffered at FSU last weekend, began heckling as ECU (32-21) rallied late in the game.

However, it wasn’t enough as the Tar Heels won 8-5 and tied a school record with their 30th home win of the season.

For UNC coach Mike Fox, it’s the second time during his six year tenure at Carolina that he has won 30 games at Boshamer Stadium.

The record could be broken during a three-game series with Georgia Tech (37-14, 21-6 ACC) this weekend.

“It’s kind of our comfort zone, even though tonight it was more like a road game with their crowd,” Fox said about playing on the home field.

Almost half of the 1,759 fans in attendance were ECU supporters from Greenville dressed in purple and gold. Although the Heels defeated the Pirates 18-6 earlier this season, catcher Justin Webb said he didn’t underestimate the opposition before the game.

He couldn’t ignore their fans either.

“It’s hard to look past a team when their fans are over there just yelling at us in dugout,” Webb said.

ECU fans were more subdued during the first seven innings while UNC enjoyed a 6-0 lead.

The early shutout was ideal for a team that has had troubles defensively this season.

“That was part of the biggest key to the game,” Fox said.

Pitchers Andy Gale and Adam Kalkhof each pitched three of the first six innings. Gale, a freshman, was responsible for three of the four strikeouts between them.

During the seventh inning, designated hitter Matt Ellington smacked a two-run homer to make the lead eight runs.

Any chance of keeping ECU scoreless was destroyed in the eighth inning when the Pirates erupted with four runs.

The ECU rally began during the first of three Carolina errors in the final two innings. Over the past 21 games, the Heels have made 43 errors.

“We’d rather get those bugs out now with an eight run lead than in another game,” Webb said. “We weren’t really worried about it with the big lead we had.”

Closing pitcher Matt Danford was able to secure the win by giving up only one run and two hits in 1.2 innings pitched.

The UNC victory maintains the Heels’ all-time series lead against ECU with a 39-24 record. The win also helped Carolina avoid its first five-game losing streak since 1997 after recently losing three games against FSU and one against Coastal Carolina.

Fox said his team must focus on improving its “average” defense before the three-game series with Georgia Tech this weekend to finish the season.

“Hopefully our guys will realize what’s at stake — we’ve got a chance to get to 40 wins,” he said.

The Heels will also have the opportunity to break the home wins record that was last achieved in 1993 and 2000.

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu