UNC baseball finally gets on the board first against ECU

While North Carolina’s late-game heroics have been well chronicled, a reason for its success this season may be something different altogether.

This North Carolina baseball team has reached 30 wins faster than any UNC team since 1983 and, while the Tar Heels have scored a lot of runs, they’ve also kept their opponents from putting games out of reach.

“I think we’re a tough bunch. We play every pitch as hard as we can,” junior Levi Michael said. “Last year’s team may not have played the whole game. This year we really put teams away.”

North Carolina jumped on East Carolina early Tuesday night at Boshamer Stadium, taking a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning.

An early one-run lead may not seem so impressive, but it was significant for the Tar Heels as Tuesday’s game marked the first time in 12 games that UNC has scored before its opponent.

“It’s kind of been a trend for us lately, to get behind early, that first inning’s been a little rough for us,” Michael said. “Today, getting on the board first, definitely took some pressure off our pitching staff.”

But the team hasn’t struggled to score runs this season — UNC is the fifth-highest scoring team in the NCAA.

The Tar Heels scored runs at a high enough rate to overcome almost all of those early deficits, losing only two of those 11 contests.

UNC opponents have scored six or more runs in only eight games this season. Maybe more impressive is that of those games, the Tar Heels have lost just one.

But UNC coach Mike Fox knows that it’s unlikely for his team to keep playing at the torrid pace they’ve displayed thus far.

“It’ll be interesting to see how we respond because we’ll hit a lull here at some point — every team does,” Fox said.

“You have to keep working, keep lifting, keep guys motivated and you just don’t take your foot off the pedal, you can’t let up.”

But the team hasn’t started to let up yet. With the game tied 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh, North Carolina capitalized on two Pirate errors to take the lead for good.

Before a team can make a late-game comeback, it has to keep the game close, and this year’s team has been exceptional at doing just that.

“Our team’s gelled together and we’re winning some close games,” Fox said. “We didn’t win as many of those as we wanted to last year.”

North Carolina’s early-season success hasn’t come by chance. It’s the product of a strict formula of good pitching, great defense and timely hitting.

“We’ve played the best defense probably of any team I’ve had here through 35 games,” Fox said.

“And that’s half the battle.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.