UNC baseball boasts strong pitching rotation

If Chris Munnelly was a little shaky during the first of three scoreless innings Wednesday against High Point, it might have been the scheduling change.

He doesn’t usually work weekdays.

After bruising his ribs during batting practice before a March 12 loss at Wake Forest, the sophomore right-hander gave up three first-inning runs without recording an out and found himself coming out of the bullpen during the following week’s series at Virginia Tech.

In his stead, freshman southpaw Kent Emanuel hurled seven innings of two-run ball and struck out nine Hokies. It was the first weekend series since the beginning of last April in which Munnelly did not start a game.

“It was all performance,” UNC coach Mike Fox said of his decision to start Emanuel. “(Emanuel)’s pitched pretty well, so we’re going to pitch him on the weekends. That’s the way it works around here.”

And so Munnelly took the Boshamer Stadium mound competing as much against the Panthers as he was Emanuel and fellow UNC pitcher Cody Stiles, Munnelly’s competition for an opportunity to start this Sunday against Duke in place of Michael Morin.

Morin will likely be used out of the bullpen after spraining his ankle against Virginia Tech.

Munnelly began his audition in a spot of trouble, allowing a hard one-out single to High Point’s Scott Glover before walking Steve Antolik to put a runner in scoring position.

But against center fielder Ryan Retz, Munnelly gave himself a 2-2 advantage in the count by throwing his first first-pitch strike of the game and working the outside half of the plate. That’s when Munnelly fooled Retz with a slider inside to induce an inning-ending six-four-three double play.

“I knew we were reeling a little bit and I just tried to make a pitch where I could jam him and get a quick two outs,” Munnelly said.

The pitch proved to be a turning point. Munnelly found a rhythm, getting ahead in the count early and following the High Point scouting report, which indicated the team was prone to chasing pitches off the outside edge of the plate.

After the double play, Munnelly retired six of the final seven batters he faced, with the lone baserunner coming from a hit-by-pitch.

He was removed after three innings so he’d be fresh for the weekend series.

“You could tell he was a little uneasy about his rib,” catcher Jacob Stallings said. “He was just trying to get out there, feel comfortable and get his mechanics down. But I think he settled down real nice.”

Though Munnelly said he was pleased to see how well Emanuel had been pitching and that he was focused on his own performance, Fox likes to use position battles as a motivational tool.

In fact, Fox did not announce the team’s weekend rotation at the beginning of the season in part as a means of keeping his players hungry.

“We want competition all over the field because that’s the most powerful motivator that I have — somebody else could go out and play in your position,” Fox said.

Though Fox said he thought Munnelly threw well Wednesday, he would like to see him throw strikes early in the count with more consistency before he can return to the rotation on a permanent basis.

In the meantime, Fox is confident either Munnelly or Stiles has what it takes to get the job done Sunday against the Blue Devils.

“It’s really good for us to know that no matter which one of them starts, we’ve got the other one to come out of the bullpen,” Fox said.

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