Pirates keep Tar Heels' bats at bay

A lot can change in a week.

For the North Carolina baseball team, that change included four-straight victories and some much-needed momentum as the team heads down the final stretch. 

But coach Mike Fox said the object of his team’s affection is fleeting.

“There’s no such thing in baseball as momentum,” Fox said. “Momentum changes from pitch to pitch, inning to inning, game to game, weekend to midweek, pitcher to pitcher.”

And after losing to East Carolina in Greenville a week ago,  the Pirates proved Fox’s point by shutting out the Tar Heels 1-0 Tuesday at Boshamer Stadium and showing not much changed at all.

Reid Love toed the rubber for the Pirates after allowing one run in nearly five innings last week against the Tar Heels.  

Junior shortstop Michael Russell jumped on the left-hander early by lining a single into right field to extend his hitting streak to 18 games.

Russell advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt from senior Parks Jordan but wouldn’t make it any farther.

Love tamed the Tar Heels’ bats for the remainder of the game. Jordan said Reid’s aggressive approach was nearly identical to last week.

“For the most part he was the same,” Jordan said. “He pounded the strike zone pretty well with all of his pitches, did a good job of getting ahead of us, just stuck in there and was consistent throughout the whole game — both outings.”

While Love kept UNC’s bats at bay, Taylore Cherry mirrored his counterpart on the hill.

The 6-foot-8, 270-pound right-hander attacked the Pirates with his fastball and utilized it to escape out of jams provoked by errors and a wild pitch in the second through fifth innings.

But, after giving up a single to leadoff the top of the sixth,  Cherry was pulled from the game after throwing only 74 pitches and replaced with Trevor Kelley.  The Pirates moved the runner to second on a sacrifice bunt and drove him home on a single up the middle for the lone run of the game.

The Tar Heels were now more desperate than ever to get their bats going, but Love shut the door.

Love allowed two hits over the final three frames, and his teammates rushed the field to congratulate him on a complete-game shutout. It was the first time the Tar Heels had been shutout all season.

Fox said Love was extremely impressive, but his team’s inability to take advantage of Love’s few mistakes proved to be the difference.

“We got some 87, maybe a couple of 88. 86, 87 mph fastballs we were either late on or not squaring up,” Fox said. “That’s something you have to be able to do consistently to score runs.”

Failure to do this also prevented Cherry from getting the win despite his valiant effort. Cherry said the team’s lack of run support is frustrating to him and his teammates, but it’s something that’s out of his control as a pitcher.

“We can’t worry about our run support,” Cherry said. “We’ve just got to go keep throwing and trust that our offense is going to have our back.

“It didn’t have it tonight.”

And it didn’t have it last week.

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.