Last week's results: def. UNCW 10-0, swept Maryland 10-4, 5-3, 8-4
Record Last Week: 4-0
Record This Season: 29-2, 12-2 ACC
Upcoming Schedule: 4/9 at Elon, 4/10 vs Liberty, 4/12-4/14 at Virginia Tech
The Diamond Heels continue to roll over everyone bouncing back from the extra inning loss to Clemson on Monday to win four straight.
UNC made its first midweek road trip of the season down to Wilmington where they dispatched of the Seahawks 10-0. Chris Munnelly was fairly dominant in seven innings giving up only two hits, no runs and striking out eight. The usual suspects did their job at the plate. Colin Moran went 3-5 while Cody Stubbs and Skye Bolt had a pair of RBIs each.
Over the weekend UNC welcomed Maryland to Chapel Hill. On Friday, Kent Emanuel had one of those "ridiculous" outings taking a no hitter into the sixth before a Maryland home run broke out that and the shutout. Still, Emanuel sat down 16 straight after issuing a walk to start the game. He would give up two runs in eight innings for his sixth win of the season. Bolt drove in five runs to pace the offense.
The second and third games of the series required a little more effort as the Heels fell behind in both contests but rallied in short order to win both. On Saturday, Benton Moss was roughed up early giving up three runs in 3.2 innings of work. He gave way to Tate Parrish, Shane Taylor, Chris McCue and Trent Thornton who kept the Terps in check. Parks Joran's two RBI single in the fourth would put UNC ahead for good and clinch the series.
The Sunday finale saw UNC trail until a four run sixth gave the Heels the lead for good. Hobbs Johnson gave up four runs early prior to another appearance from Thornton. The freshman threw 4.1 innings of shutout baseball despite giving up seven hits.
Like his fellow freshmen Skye Bolt and Landon Lassiter, Thornton has been an immediate impact member of this team. According to UNC, Thornton is 7-0 on the season with a 0.60 ERA. That is impressive and you certainly hope Mike Fox manages to keep Thornton fresh as the Heels move into the latter half of the season. Fox has not established a true closer so far but Thornton is certainly filling that role and then some.
As for how good the UNC offense is? Consider this:
With runners in scoring position UNC's 3-5 hitters (Colin Moran, Skye Bolt and Cody Stubbs) are 64-for-145 (.441) with 109 RBIs
— Carolina Baseball (@DiamondHeels) April 7, 2013
The Tar Heels have scored 271 runs so far this season and are running slightly ahead of the pace to break the UNC record for runs in a season which is 541.