University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Florida State
FSU Takes Rubber Game, 4-2
May 14, 2000 | Baseball
May 14, 2000
Chapel Hill, N.C. -- No. 4 Florida State defeated No. 12 North Carolina Sunday afternoon 4-2 at Boshamer Stadium to take two of three games from the Tar Heels in the final series of the regular season. Carolina, which started the season with a school-record 21-game winning streak and tied a UNC record with 30 home wins this year, finishes the regular season 43-13, 12-12 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Florida State also closes its regular-season 43-13, while the Seminoles were 15-9 in ACC play.
In what was another close game in this hard-fought series, the Seminoles used a three-run sixth inning to erase a 1-0 Carolina lead and pull ahead of the Tar Heels for the victory. Eric Henderson (6-5) suffered the loss for the Tar Heels after pitching through that three-run sixth before being relieved by B.J. Finnerty to start the seventh inning. Henderson allowed six hits while striking out five. Seminole starter Jon McDonald allowed just one UNC run on four hits while striking out six over 5.1 innings for his 10th win of the season. Matt Lynch pitched three scoreless innings for his first save.
Russ Adams led off the second inning with Carolina's first hit of the afternoon. Ryan Mathews knocked him home three batters later to give UNC a 1-0 lead in the second.
The Tar Heels held that one-run lead into the sixth inning before FSU answered with three runs on three hits to take a 3-1 advantage. Chris Smith and Pichi Balet both had RBI singles off Henderson in the inning to give the Seminoles the lead.
Mathews knocked in his second run of the game in the bottom half of the sixth to pull the Tar Heels to within 3-2, but another Seminole run in the top of the seventh pushed FSU to the final 4-2 margin. In the sixth, Jay Madeira singled to right, stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by FSU catcher Blair McCaleb before Mathews knocked him home on a ground out to third base. Florida State's fourth run came home on a wild pitch by reliever Scott Autrey.
Dan Moylan (2-for-5), Mathews (2-for-4, 2 RBIs) and Chad Prosser (2-for-3) all had two-hit games for the Tar Heels, while Marshall McDougall was 3-for-5 with 1 run to lead the way for the Seminoles.
Both teams now hit the road for the ACC Tournament which begins Tuesday in Fort Mill, S.C. Carolina enters the tournament with the No. 5 seed and will play No. 4 seed Wake Forest Wednesday at 10 a.m. The Demon Deacons took three close games from the Tar Heels earlier this season in Winston-Salem. FSU earned the No. 3 seed and will play at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
