Tar Heels’ deep pitching staff shines

In last weekend’s season-opening series against Xavier, the No. 4 North Carolina baseball team showed a weakness on the mound, as the Musketeers recorded 37 hits and 16 runs during the three-game series.

But the Tar Heels remained confident in the talents of their pitching staff. And in UNC’s weekend series against Wright State, that certainty finally made sense.

Fueled by near-spotless pitching and 20 straight shutout innings, the Tar Heels topped the Raiders 17-3, 14-0 and 3-0 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

After a pair of strong offensive performances, headlined by third baseman Colin Moran’s cycle on Saturday, Sunday’s finale was a bit of a pitcher’s duel.

But catcher Jacob Stallings liked who UNC had in that fight.

“Coach preaches it all the time, pitching and defense,” Stallings said. “That’s the name of the game. We’re not going to go out there and score 14, 17, 16 runs all the time, so we want to rely on our pitching and defense.”

Freshman hurler Chris O’Brien started for the Tar Heels on Sunday, and after allowing six hits, no runs and striking out four in four innings pitched, he was relieved by R.C. Orlan.

By earning his second win of the season, Orlan proved he can be a consistent contributor out of the bullpen.

The junior southpaw retired all 12 batters he faced Sunday, and has now pitched a total of nine shutout innings this season.

“Talking to coach Forbes over the summer, he just said, ‘Look, I just want you to work on commanding your fastball. And then working off your speed stuff,’” Orlan said. “I just really focused on that, and it’s paying off.”

Orlan made a name for himself with a pair of solid outings in UNC’s College World Series appearance in June. And though he’s carved a niche as a reliever, coach Mike Fox said it’s not out of the question for him to enter the starting rotation.

“I think he’s feeding off of last year, not only in the world series, but down the stretch last year,” Fox said. “The whole question about R.C. was could he throw strikes? Could he command his fastball? And he’s really worked hard to do that.”

Orlan said throwing to live batters in Tuesday’s practice helped him prepare for the weekend.

But by the looks of things, Orlan wasn’t the only one who benefited from the extra work.

Ten different UNC pitchers saw time on the mound during the course of the weekend, and the Tar Heels didn’t allow a single earned run in its three victories.

Tar Heel ace Kent Emanuel kicked off the weekend Friday, allowing just three hits and striking out five in six innings pitched. Junior Chris Munnelly made the start Saturday, adding seven more shutout innings to UNC’s total.

With the tying run at the plate in the top of the ninth Sunday, closer Michael Morin capped off the Tar Heels’ series sweep with a strikeout.

It seemed like a fitting conclusion to a weekend during which UNC pitchers proved what they were made of.

Orlan already knew. But now, he’s just glad that everyone else does, too.

“We didn’t pitch too well last weekend,” Orlan said. “We really wanted to come out this weekend and make a statement that, hey, we’ve got one of the best pitching staffs in the country, and we want to make sure it’s noticed.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.