UNC baseball continues to come out swinging

When the North Carolina baseball team trailed after five innings a season ago, the team never won — posting a 0-16 record during a season that saw the Tar Heels miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2001.

But so far in 2016, the Tar Heels have been determined to produce in the earlier parts of games.

Before UNC’s Tuesday night tilt at Boshamer Stadium with Western Carolina, the team had outscored its opponents 74-17 in the first three innings.

The matchup with the Catamounts was more of the same for the No. 7 Tar Heels, as they posted six runs in the first three frames en route to a 10-2 victory.

Coming into the game against Western Carolina (9-11), UNC (18-2) had scored in the first inning of a game 12 times and accrued a 12-0 record in those contests.

In the bottom of the first inning against the Catamounts, North Carolina was set on quickly putting the game out of reach. Nine Tar Heel batters saw at-bats during the inning, as four infield singles and two walks led to four runs.

“Tonight was just luck. Pure luck,” Coach Mike Fox said. “I don’t think I’ve seen four infield hits in one inning before.”

Coming into 2016, there were concerns among fans of the program that UNC wouldn’t be able to manufacture runs on a consistent basis.

But rather than play to its level of experience, North Carolina has put together one of the top offensive units in Division-I baseball. Coming into Tuesday’s game, the Tar Heels ranked in the top-20 nationally in runs, on-base percentage, stolen bases, sacrifice bunts and sacrifice flies.

And it has been the underclassmen who have made perhaps the biggest impact.

Sophomore Brian Miller, who went 3-for-4 on Tuesday night, currently ranks second on the Tar Heels in batting average. First-year Brandon Riley has overcome early-season struggles to see his average climb north of .300.

“Once the game starts it doesn’t matter what age you are,” Miller said.

“It definitely helps to have experiences, but the past two years we haven’t been very good, so it’s kind of like, just flush that away and take stuff that was really good from those years ... the success that sophomores in my class had last year and just kind of helping the younger guys get going where they’re ready to come in to play.”

And while the first-year players have no doubt benefited from the teachings of their older teammates, they have also thrived working and growing together as a unit.

“Everybody for the most part is in the same boat,” Riley said.

“We had a good group go through the fall, come through the preseason and then into the season. We’ve all been kind of learning the same stuff as we’ve been through the journey and I think that’s helped a lot that its not just one or two guys going through it alone.”

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sports@dailytarheel.com