University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Central Michigan
UNC Advances To Championship, Ties School Record With 15th Consecutive Win
March 11, 2007 | Softball
March 11, 2007
CLEARWATER, FLA. --- North Carolina ran its winning streak to a school record-tying 15 straight games and Jennifer Jacobs collected her second game-winning hit of the USF/Adidas Invitational as the Tar Heels beat Central Michigan 2-1 Sunday morning at Eddie C. Moore Field to advance to the tournament's championship game. The Tar Heels will face the winner of Georgia Tech/Hofstra around noon as they attempt to break the school record, which was previously set in 2003.
Jacobs went 2-3 with a huge RBI in the top of the sixth to keep her special homecoming week alive. Jacobs is a junior first baseman who hails from Tampa.
Joslin Higgins got the scoring started in the second inning for the Tar Heels (22-8), notching a two-out, RBI base hit to bring in the game's first run - the second time in as many contests as she's done exactly that. Whitney Allen scored on the play, and UNC grabbed an early 1-0 lead over the Chippewas (8-11).
Starting pitcher Amber Johnson fielded her position excellently in the first two frames to help keep Central Michigan off the board. She snagged two balls up the middle, cutting down the leadoff runner at third in the bottom of the first inning and starting a double play the next time the Chippewas came up to bat.
A walk and a single to start things off in the bottom of the third looked to set things up for Central Michigan, but Johnson responded by bracketing a Chippewa popout with two flyouts and the threat was subdued. Carolina continued its sparkling defensive play in a scoreless fourth, turning its second double play of the game. With a runner on first, the Chippewas lined a bunt to first baseman Jennifer Jacobs, who alertly wheeled and threw to first, where Cassie Palmer was covering, to double up Central Michigan.
After their two-hit second inning, the Tar Heels struggled to find their offense, managing only one hit off Chippewa starter Kari Seddon in the next three frames. Central Michigan finally took advantage in the bottom of the fifth as Seddon sent a pitch over the left field fence to tie the game at one.
But the Heels answered right back with a run in sixth to regain a 2-1 lead. Stephanie Murad legged out a single to shortstop and then advanced to second when the throw scooted by the bag, giving the Heels a runner in scoring position with two outs. Marissa May came in to pinch run and Jennifer Jacobs lined a ball through the left side for a clutch run-scoring hit that proved to be the winning run.
Lisa Norris, who came on in relief of Johnson after the home run in the fifth, kept the Chippewas off the scoreboard in the sixth and then finished things off by setting the side down in order in the seventh. Norris pitched three innings to earn the win, holding Central Michigan without a hit in moving her record to 13-6.
