It was supposed to be a pitchers' battle — two aces going head-to-head between the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the Chapel Hill Regional.
But at the end of the day" neither North Carolina's Alex White nor Coastal Carolina's Cody Wheeler lasted past the fifth inning" and Dustin Ackley and the UNC hitters sat atop the wreckage of the rest of the Chanticleer bullpen after UNC's 14-5 win.
""Well" so much for today being a pitchers' dual" UNC coach Mike Fox said. After the first three innings I thought we played exceptionally well — some of our best baseball.""
Ackley spent the afternoon hitting everything Coastal threw at him — he went 4-for-4 with two intentional walks as UNC's offense exploded for 17 hits. For the regional"" Ackley is now 7-for-9 in two games (for a .778 average) with five RBIs.
""He is the best player in the country. Without a doubt"" Fox said. He has to be.""
On the mound"" righthander White — battling both a blister on his finger and a tweaked hamstring — struggled through 4 2/3 innings and gave up five runs on just four hits.
Coastal Carolina capitalized on White's struggles and three errors from the Tar Heel defense to briefly take a 3-2 lead with three runs in the third inning.
But UNC's Ben Bunting had the answer. The Tar Heels loaded up the bases and Bunting cleared them with a three-RBI double in the bottom of the third inning"" and UNC remained firmly in the driver's seat for the duration of the game.
""I think that gave us a lot of momentum" Bunting said. We were just trying to get a run and get ahead" and I think that just gave us the little push we needed.""
And while Ackley's performance was almost anticipated (he also set the UNC career record for runs scored)"" the junior first baseman had plenty of help — 13 hits and 10 RBIs came from the rest of the lineup.
No one helped more than freshman second baseman Levi Michael"" who went 4-for-6 with three RBIs.
""Tonight" I was seeing the ball really well Michael said. I stayed back on a couple changeups" just didn't try to do too much.""
With the UNC bats singing"" Colin Bates came into the game as middle relief and pitched 3 1/3 innings of relief with four strikeouts and no runs allowed on just one hit.
""The biggest thing today was strike one" Bates said. I feel like when I got ahead of them they weren't taking their best swings" when it was my count instead of theirs.""
UNC moves on to play the winner of Coastal Carolina and Kansas on Sunday.
