Baseball: UNC steamrolls Princeton

It started just the way coach Mike Fox likes it to — with pitching and defense.

Shortstop Ryan Graepel was all over the field including one sliding grab and throw to first. Patrick Johnson dealt five innings of no-hit baseball and the North Carolina bullpen was smothering Princeton's offense.

But for whatever reason in the sixth inning Wednesday afternoon" No. 1 UNC (15-2) decided its 8-0 lead against Princeton (3-3) wasn't enough.

So the Tar Heels went yard. Five times.

""It was incredible" Graepel said of watching ball after ball fly over the outfield wall. We got some of the younger guys some at-bats" and they did a terrific job.""

First it was freshman Seth Baldwin hammering a grand slam in his first career start.

Two batters later" it was freshman Levi Michael sending a shot over the left field fence followed immediately by Dustin Ackley's fifth homer in five games.

And two innings later Baldwin homered again — this time with a ball that still hasn't come down.

While he was icing his arm in the dugout starting pitcher Johnson heard the hit" ran out and saw the ball still sailing into Ehringhaus Field.

""It was awesome"" Johnson said. I've never seen a ball hit that far.""

All told" the Tar Heels strung together seven straight hits in the sixth inning and seven different UNC players registered multiple hits. The Tar Heels amassed 20 hits for the game to walk away with the 17-0 victory.

Though the victory was never in doubt after UNC grabbed an early 5-0 lead after three innings the possibility of a no-no kept UNC playing.

But in the eighth inning Princeton's Greg Van Horn managed to get a bat on Brian Moran's pitch" and the ball floated into the only open spot on the field for Princeton's only hit.

""You'd rather see a guy hit one off the wall or something" rather than bloop one in" Fox said. But that's baseball.""

For the day" the UNC pitchers allowed just the one hit and struck out 10. Johnson allowed no hits during five innings of work and picked up the win. Moran finished the game with three straight strikeouts.

Including last year's start against Princeton" Johnson now has 10 innings of shutout baseball against the Tigers.

""It shows you exactly what happens when you throw strikes"" Graepel said. Teams are going to have a really hard time hitting our pitchers as good as they are.""

To compound the overpowering pitching and bombardment of hitting" UNC also took advantage of four Princeton errors" which they converted into three runs.

""When you can put pressure on the defense by stealing bases and putting the ball in play on nearly every at-bat" it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the defense" Graepel said.

UNC was also error-free for the day, and Graepel was the principle architect of that. His three assists were a team high, and his sliding, backhanded catch-and-throw in the first inning was highlight material.

That's like a normal play for Graepel"" Johnson said. He makes those all the time.""

As a whole"" UNC's game didn't really show a weak spot.

""I thought it was definitely the most complete game we've played all year"" Graepel said. And probably the most complete game that I've been a part of since I've been here.""


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