UNC baseball tops FSU in final game before postseason

Brian Holberton’s tie-breaking RBI single was the hit North Carolina baseball needed to secure a 4-3 win against Florida State on Monday night.

The ball sent to center field in the eighth inning moved the team to 48-8, but coach Mike Fox said the importance of Holberton’s hit extended past just giving UNC the win.

“If this game doesn’t do anything else for us, maybe it gets Brian Holberton going for us a little bit,” Fox said. “That’s the first thing that I thought when he got that hit was ‘Wow, that’s probably the one guy on our team that needed to go up there and get a big hit for us.’”

For Holberton, it was simply a matter of sitting on the right pitch.

“Before that he’d been throwing all fastballs, so I figured he was going to try to get ahead with a fastball, and he did,” he said. “I just tried to hit it up the middle, and that’s what happened.”

Closer Trent Thornton then hit his first batter of the ninth inning, but Colin Moran, Michael Russell and Cody Stubbs connected on a bunt to third base to turn a double play.

Thornton walked his third batter and struck out his fourth to end the game in just the right number of pitches.

“If (FSU)’d tied the game, we wouldn’t have been able to stay with (Thornton),” Fox said. “So I’m glad it worked out that way.”

Part of Fox and pitching coach Scott Forbes’ plan for the night included giving senior Chris Munnelly the start and bringing freshman Reilly Hovis out of the bullpen in preparation for the ACC Tournament later this week.

Russell, Chaz Frank, Skye Bolt and Stubbs each had two hits on the night, but those were expected, Fox said, even against a team of ACC Atlantic Division champion FSU’s caliber.

“Michael Russell and Chaz Frank, they were the dirtiest guys on the field tonight,” Fox said. “And if you’d told me they’d play like that, I’d say ‘Yeah, I bet you everything I own they get it done.’”

A no-out two RBI single from Russell in the fourth inning scored Stubbs and Bolt after the pair advanced on an error by Seminole third baseman Jose Brizuela.

“Whenever there’s an error made, it’s just another opportunity,” Russell said. “I was just trying to drive those guys in, and I did, which was nice to get us settled in early.”

The Florida State win also confirmed UNC’s standing as the only team in the nation to go all season without a losing streak.

“It means my team’s got a little backbone,” Fox said. “They don’t like to lose, they really don’t — probably more than any team I’ve ever been around.

“I don’t have to say anything because they’re upset with themselves. They know if they play at a certain level we should be able to win.”

The will to win and determination to move past losses is something signature to this season’s team.

The Tar Heels ended the regular season with the most wins in school history, as the team first in the nation to reach 40 wins this season and the first North Carolina team to claim an ACC regular season title since 1990.

And Fox recognizes that it’s his players whose performances and abilities speak to explain those statistics.

“Oh, and one reason we’ve won 48 games is because we have the pitcher of the year (Kent Emanuel) in our league and the player of the year (Moran) in our league,” Fox said. “I probably need to mention that tonight.

“When you start with guys on your team like that and you’ve got just other great players around them, you’ve got a chance. “