Tar Heels secure win against Richmond

Down two strikes in the bottom of the third, North Carolina shortstop Ryan Graepel hit a three-run homer, taking back a 6-5 lead over Richmond.

And for coach Mike Fox, Graepel’s game-changing swing has been a long time coming.

“It’s about time,” Fox told the senior when he returned to the dugout.

The bomb was part of a string of three straight three-run innings for the Tar Heels en route to their 17-6 win.

The home run was the fourth of Graepel’s career and his second so far this season. But it was one thing the shortstop himself wasn’t quite expecting when he stepped up to the plate.

“I’ve got more of a line-drive swing, so home runs usually aren’t my thing,” Graepel said. “It’s almost luck when I hit home runs.”

Graepel also hit a double in the sixth, earning two more RBIs for the night. He totaled a career-high six RBIs against the Spiders.

North Carolina had three errors in the game, one of them helping Richmond score a late seventh inning run. But near-perfect relief pitching in the later innings from the Tar Heels stopped the Spiders from crawling back into the lead.

After a strong third inning where Richmond registered three hits and four runs, shaky pitching from UNC’s Zach Bernard in the fourth loaded the bases for Richmond.

With one out, sophomore pitcher Garrett Davis took over for UNC and struck out his first two batters, ending the inning with three Spiders left on base.

“I made up my mind that I was going to come out throwing strikes and make them beat me with the bats,” he said.

Davis — who got the win in the matchup — allowed no hits and had five strikeouts in eight at-bats. In keeping with the trend, junior Nate Striz ended the game, striking out the final batter of the night.

But marvels from the mound wouldn’t happen for the Spiders.

Richmond shot themselves in the foot with poor pitching in the fourth, walking three batters, hitting two and allowing three UNC runs.

And it didn’t improve. The Spiders threw a wild pitch and walked five batters in the sixth. UNC capitalized on Richmond’s miscues, loading the bases three times in the inning and scoring five runs.

“They walked some guys, opened the doors for us and we strung together some hits,” Fox said. “We needed a big inning or two.”

The Tar Heels added two large-margin victories this week. And Fox hopes it’ll give his team a little confidence for the upcoming series at Maryland.

“These last two days we’ve gotten to how you want to script mid-week games,” he said. “We rested a lot of arms, we’ve got all of our bullpen we didn’t have to use. They should be rested and ready to go this weekend.”



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