Tarheels projected lineup

I love Josh Horton. He is very smooth at SS, has a great bat and is a true natural leader. Kyle Shelton is special. He can make all the plays and make them look easy. What separates Kyle from most is he has a cannon for an arm. Kyle can play 2nd, ss or 3rd equally as well. Give me Kyle's glove and footwork, Josh's bat and leadership and I'll have the premiere SS in the country.

 

I think they're both very good, but Shelton's probably better defensively from the limited number of times I've seen him play. The fact that he's a late inning defensive replacement pretty often says a lot.

 

After dropping 2 of 3 at Clemson, the Tar Heels returned from spring break to take two from Towson this week, moving to 15-0 at the Bosh.

Tuesday 3/22
Tigers 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 4 7 3
Heels 0 0 3 1 3 0 0 0 X 6 12 3

WP: Bryan Phillips (4 IP, 1 ER, 5 K, 2 BB)
LP: Tyler Travis (5 IP, 4 ER, 1 K, 2 BB)

Mangum was 2-for-5 and scored, Bryan Steed was 2-for-3 with a double and two sac bunts and Jay Cox had three doubles. Matt Spencer had a couple solid innings. Jonathan Hovis had a shaky one, giving up a single, homer and double, but came on strong in the eighth and Matt Danford saved the game with two Ks in the ninth.

Wednesday 3/23
Tigers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Heels 0 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 X 6 13 0

WP: Andy Gale (7 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 5 K)
LP: Jason Summerlin (5 IP, 6 ER, 11 H)

Mike Daniel went 3-for-4 with two homers and a triple, Chad Flack was 2-for-3 and Seth Williams also homered for the Heels, but Andy Gale, Andrew Carnigan and Robert Woodard stole the show, combining on a 1-hitter.

But I don't think anyone expected pitching to be a problem on this team. It's nice to see some double-digit hit nights after the Clemson series.

 

UNC sweeps Wake & UVA

While the Tar Heel hoopsters advanced through the March Madness guantlet to the championship game, their baseball counterparts toiled in relative obscurity to improve to 22-0 at home and 24-5 overall, while sweeping two conference rivals in successive weekends at the Bosh.

I was in attendance for the first game vs. Wake Forest and was shocked by the paucity of fans (505) considering Andrew Miller was on the hill with his .069 ERA backed by a nationally ranked team. Miller did not have his best stuff that night but oh what a talent. He walked 6 and worked thru some jams to get the win, allowing only 4 hits aind 1 unearned run. SS Josh Horton hit his first collegiate home run.

Robert Woodard tossed eight shut out inning of relief against UVA while allowing only 4 hits. So far, RW is the team leader in BA against with .188, on a staff that is considered to have two of the best three soph pitchers in college baseball, Miller and Bard. Remarkable.

Offensively, North Henderson's Seth Williams is now leading the team with 7 dingers despite having only 66 ABs, and in slugging % (.667). Chad Flack now ranks third on the team with 5 HRs. In addition to Williams & Flack fellow freshmen, Fronk, Horton and Shelton are all batting over .300.

 

It was a marathon this weekend vs UVA, and the Heels pulled out some gutsy victories. Friday night was pretty sloppy, and Carolina was down 2-0, 5-3 and 7-5 before finally tying it in the bottom of the ninth on a sac fly by Jay Cox. The Cavaliers threatened several times in extras, loading the bases in the 13th and leaving two on in the 14th, but singles by Matt Ellington and Jay Cox sandwiched around a Ross Cook walk won the game in the bottom of 14.

Saturday's game stretched from 1pm to after 6pm with all the rain delays. Daniel Bard returned after both delays, which totalled two and a half hours, finishing with 5 ERs in 7 innings on 7 hits and 5 Ks, which was actually a better line than it sounds like. The bullpen, in the form of Matt Danford, shut UVA down and Justin Webb broke the game open with a 3-run homer in the seventh.

I didn't get to today's game, but Kalkhof went 6.2 and gave up 1 run. Matt Danford allowed a solo homer in the tenth, but singles by Matt Ellington, Chad Flack and Jay Cox tied it up and the Heels won in the bottom of eleven. Kyle Shelton led off with a single, advanced to second on two groundouts and scored on the two-out single by Ellington.

So quite a weekend. The bullpen was fantastic and the Tar Heels impressed me with their propensity for scoring the half-inning after being scored upon. 7 out of 9 innings in which Virginia scored, Carolina answered in the bottom half.

 

Tar Heel freshmen article

From The Daily Tar Heel, which covers baseball decently well even today.

Newcomers step up to the plate for baseball team
By Daniel Malloy

With more freshmen than Avalon on a Thursday night, the North Carolina baseball team's starting lineup has been a work in progress this season.

But after a sweep of Virginia this weekend, the Tar Heels are a school-record 22-0 at home, thanks largely to four freshmen that have solidified the batting order - Chad Flack, Reid Fronk, Josh Horton and Seth Williams.

The Tar Heels don't have the luxury of keeping the kids on the bench, as the team lost a significant chunk of its run production to graduation and the MLB draft.

"The freshman class, we really didn't have much of a choice; we kind of got thrown out there," Horton said. "Everybody is just kind of making adjustments on the run and just trying to do the best we can."

They are not playing like rookies, though. Williams leads the team in home runs, and Flack and Horton are both hitting at a .338 clip. Although they aren't making UNC fans forget about former sluggers Marshall Hubbard and Chris Iannetta - both of whom are now playing their trade professionally - the freshmen are making the grade.

"We were gonna miss those guys," Williams said. "We miss their power definitely...(But) we had one fo the top recruiting classes in the country, and we're playing like it."

Against Virginia the fresh faces were all over the scoreboard as Flack jacked two homeres and Williams went 3-for-4 on Saturday - but his most impressive play did not come at the plate.

With the Tar Heels clinging to a 6-5 lead in the seventh inning of Saturday's game, Virginia's Sean Doolittle lofted a ball into short center field as Ryan Zimmerman tagged up from third. Williams made the catch and then rifled a throw to nail Zimmerman at the plate, ending the inning and maintaining the slim margin for UNC.

And then Sunday it was another freshman, the seldom-used Kyle Shelton, crossing the plate in the 11th for the Tar Heels as the winning run after leading off the inning with a pinch-hit single.

"Our freshmen are learning a little bit," said Coach Mike Fox. "With every at bat you should get better. You should start figuring stuff out."

And it is clear that the newcomers are still learning. Horton has a team-high 11 errors, including two mishandled plays at shortstop Friday, and Williams was 0-for-3 at the plate Sunday.

"We wanted them to improve and to not be up and down," Fox said. "We felt like they've done that. They got consistent, and that's what you have to learn as a young player."

On the field the freshmen are earning the respect of opposing teams, but Horton's pre-plate appearance song choice as raises a few eyebrows.

While most players choose a rap song to blare from the Boshamer Stadium public address system, when Horton steps to the plate the opening lines of La Bouche's 1996 poppy techno hit "Be My Lover" serenade the crowd.

"It's just for fun, really," Horton said. "Just to loosen everybody up. ...Everybody picks a song that makes them look so hard. If I can make everybody laugh, that would be the best thing."

You'll have to forgive Horton for the questionable music taste.

He's just a freshman.

 

Carolina bounces back impressively from the Elon loss with a 10-0 victory over Maryland at Shipley Field. Two-hit games from Reid Fronk, Jay Cox, Chad Flack and Chase Younts. Matt Ellington was 3-for-5 with 2 RBI and freshman Josh Horton was 3-for-5 with a career-high 4 RBI.

But I think Andrew Miller stole the show from even Horton, striking out 10 Terps over seven 2-hit innings and running his record to 7-0. His ERA on the season drops to 1.10 and opponents are hitting .195 against him.

Miller was selected as a second-team midseason All-American and Horton was named to the midseason freshman All-American team by Baseball America.