North Carolina
Liberty
Tar Heels Hold Off Liberty, 10-4
March 12, 2003 | Baseball
March 12, 2003
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -North Carolina (10-5) defeated Liberty (4-8), 10-4 on Wednesday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium. The Flames knocked off 14th ranked Wake Forest on Tuesday, but could not get much offense going against the Tar Heels on Wednesday. The Tar Heels took advantage of eleven hits and solid pitching to record their tenth win of the season.
Scott Manshack picked up his first victory since Carolina's season opener versus Delaware State and improved his record to 2-2. Manshack pitched six shutout innings and scattered just five hits while striking out three Liberty batters.
The Tar Heels sent nine batters to the plate and jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Sammy Hewitt led off the inning with a single and scored on Sean Farrell's third home run in four days. Farrell has now hit safely in Carolina's last four games. Four batters later after a Ryan Blake double and Chris Iannetta walk, Justin Webb lined a single to center that allowed Blake to cross the plate with the Tar Heels' third run of the inning.
Carolina tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the sixth. Blake led off with a single and moved to third on a perfectly executed hit and run by Chad Prosser. The next batter was Iannetta who's RBI single to left scored Blake and advanced Prosser to second. Two batters later, Prosser scored UNC's fifth run on a wild pitch.
A three run seventh inning solidified the Tar Heels' lead. Liberty pitchers walked two batters and gave up two hits in the inning including a run scoring single by Farrell, giving him three RBIs on the day.
The Flames finally got on the board with two runs in the top of the eighth. Chad Bryan's two-run single drove in Ryan Terrill and Doug Bechtold, cutting Carolina's lead to 8-2.
Carolina scored twice in the bottom of the eighth inning as Liberty pitchers walked three batters and Blake recorded his third hit of the day, an RBI single to center.
Liberty made one last attempt at a comeback in the top of the ninth. The Flames scored three runs on two hits and narrowed the gap to 10-4 but fell short as Matt Danford retired Phillip Laurent to end the game.
Carolina is off on Thursday but returns to action this weekend for a three game set against the Monmouth Hawks beginning Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. Saturday's game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. and Sunday's first pitch will be at 1:30 p.m.
