The North Carolina baseball team (4-0) routed Elon (3-1) 7-1 Tuesday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium behind a 4-for-4 performance by first-year Eric Grintz.
What happened?
North Carolina wasted little time on offense as redshirt sophomore Angel Zarate and first-year Patrick Alvarez drew walks in the bottom of the second. Redshirt sophomore Earl Semper then promptly laced a single to left field, and North Carolina took a 1-0 lead. With one out Grintz stepped to the plate with runners on first and second, but on a wild pitch, those runners moved up 90 feet. On a full count, Grintz hit a sharp single to right field that drove in two runs. After a groundout, senior Dylan Harris jumped on the first pitch and made it 4-0 North Carolina.
In the top of the third, Elon led off with a single, but the next two batters struck out. The next hitter singled in the right-center field gap to advance the runner to third. With the runners at the corners, the trailing runner stole second base to put two runners in scoring position with two outs. Junior Caden O’Brien then issued a walk to load the bases. Then O’Brien managed an 0-2 count before hitting the batter and forcing in a run to shrink the lead to 4-1. UNC would get the third out on the next batter.
Sophomore Kyle Mott took over for O’Brien on the mound in the top of the fourth and got two quick outs before surrendering a single but rebounded with a strikeout. In the bottom half, North Carolina scored on a single from junior Mikey Madej to push the lead to 5-1.
The next few innings were relatively quiet as Mott dominated Elon and retired the next six batters.
North Carolina scored again in the bottom of the eighth on Grintz's fourth hit to add another two runs to their tally and give them a comfortable cushion of 7-1. This would be the eventual final score.
Who stood out?
Grintz went 4-for-4 at the plate with a double, one run scored and four RBIs. Semper also had an impressive 2-for-3 day, he scored two runs, drove in a run and was hit by a pitch.
