Tar Heels get back on track against Eagles

In the top of the first inning against North Carolina, Winthrop left fielder Eddie Rohan slugged his first pitch down the left field line and out of Boshamer Stadium.

Watching the ball soar over the wall was a sight all too familiar for the Tar Heels.

North Carolina led the then-No. 3 Georgia Tech 8-3 on Sunday until a ninth-inning rally capped off by a two-run home run resulted in an extra inning and a Yellow Jacket sweep.

But at the end of Tuesday’s 14-5 win against Winthrop, the Tar Heels were finally able to put the weekend series in the past.

Rohan’s homer — his ninth of the season — brought back sore memories for UNC. And again in the third inning, another Eagle home run just rubbed salt in the wound.

With a 2-2 tie, Winthrop first baseman Matt Thielepape hit a two-run home run, taking a two- run lead for the second time of the evening.

“It’s part of baseball,” shortstop Ryan Graepel said. “You come to expect it. They’re a great hitting team.”

UNC responded in the bottom of the inning with a Mike Cavasinni run. But it wasn’t until the fifth inning that the Tar Heels took their first lead.

With catcher Jacob Stallings on base, Cavasinni struck again with a double. A Ben Bunting hit to right field sent Stallings home, tying the score for the second time of the night, 4-4.

Add a Levi Michael hit and a Winthrop wild pitch, and two more Tar Heels touched home as Jesse Wierzbicki stepped up to the plate.

The 6-foot-2 catcher sent a ball flying over the right field wall for a two-run home run, and UNC took an 8-4 lead.

“It kind of let the air out of the game a little bit,” UNC coach Mike Fox said. “It was nice to see us string some hits together. We hadn’t done that.”

Wierzbicki leads North Carolina in home runs with six. And the junior only trails Bunting in hits with 34.

“I don’t look at averages. I don’t keep my stats. I don’t even really like to hear about them,” Wierzbicki said. “It gets in your head, and you start thinking about that and not the game. I just try and go up there and hit the ball hard every time.”

In the bottom of the sixth, Michael hit his third triple of the season, and the Tar Heels scored three runs during the inning. UNC scored three more in the seventh with the help of pinch hitter Seth Baldwin, widening the already large gap.

“We as a team have really been focusing on the middle innings of the game,” Graepel said. “Sometimes the fourth, fifth and sixth can sort of be a lull.

“We’ve been focusing on making sure that our hitters are having their best at bats every time they go up there — not just in the first couple innings and not just late in the game.”

Solid pitching from Cody Penny and Teddy Mitrosilis held the Eagles to just one run for the rest of the night, sealing the North Carolina win.

UNC will host Richmond today before traveling to meet the Maryland Terrapins for a three-game conference series.

“We’ve got our backs to the wall in our league a little bit,” Fox said. “We’ve got to play every game from here on out with a sense of urgency.”



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.