Where: Boshamer Stadium, Chapel Hill, NC
When: Saturday, June 2nd, 6:00 PM
Radio/Internet: CBS ULive: Video | Audio
Records: UNC 45-14, St. John's 38-21
Rematch.
Regardless of the Friday results, UNC was going to see a team it had already met during the season. In this case it will be St. John's. The Heels beat the Red Storm back on February 28th in Chapel Hill 8-4. Benton Moss got the start in that game and combined with Shane Taylor, Cody Penny and Michael Morin to hold St. John's in check. At the plate, the heart of the Heels' lineup(Colin Moran, Jacob Stallings and Cody Stubbs) went 8-12 with seven RBIs.
This game stands to be totally different seeing that the ace of both staffs will be on the mound. UNC will send Kent Emanuel(8-4, 2.04 ERA) to the mound and he will likely face St. John's Sean Hagan(8-2, 2.58 ERA) The Red Storm's bats lit up the scoreboard in the opener versus East Carolina with 11 runs. The top of the lineup for the Red Storm did most of the damage against the Pirates who really, really hate playing baseball in Chapel Hill.
UNC will need to get a strong performance out of Emanuel who struggled a bit against Miami last week. Emanuel has experience starting in the NCAA Tournament having done so last season. A solid, long outing from the staff ace plus plenty of offensive pop would set the table nicely for Sunday.