In its first ACC contest of the season, the North Carolina baseball team used an eight-run fifth inning to vanquish the Pittsburgh Panthers 14-2 in the first game of a three-game series.
Coming off of an impressive 11-5 victory over previously undefeated Gardner Webb on Tuesday, the Tar Heel (11-1) bats carried momentum into the early innings.
In the bottom of the second inning, first-year Tyler Lynn and senior Eli Sutherland led off with a single and double respectively. The next two Tar Heels scored Lynn and Sutherland on sacrifice flys, giving UNC a quick 2-0 lead over the Panthers (6-5).
North Carolina tacked on another run in the bottom of the third inning, giving junior pitcher Zac Gallen plenty of room to work. In eight innings of work, the right-hander from Gibbsboro, N.J. gave up just four hits and struck out eight batters.
UNC led by just two runs heading into the bottom of the fifth inning, but that lead ballooned to 10 runs before the top of the sixth inning began.
The Tar Heels sent 12 batters to the plate in the frame. Sophomore Brian Miller, who came into the game batting .419, went 2-for-2 with a single, a double, a run scored and two RBIs in the inning.
North Carolina scored three more runs over the next two innings, putting its lead at 14-1, where it would remain for the rest of the day. Friday marked the second time this season that UNC scored 14 runs in a contest, the first being a 14-5 win over UCLA on Feb. 21.
Quotable
"We're getting contributions from a lot of guys ... Hitting's contagious, it really is. It's been good to see that it hasn't been one or two guys. It's been everybody throughout the lineup." — Coach Mike Fox on his team's offensive outburst during the past week.
