It would be understandable if the No. 9 North Carolina baseball team was searching for motivation heading into Wednesday's contest against Gardner-Webb — the first midweek game of the season.
“The weekend's gone, opening day is gone, there’s no sun, there’s not anywhere near the crowd," head coach Mike Fox said. "They had class today, so it's a whole different dynamic in the middle of the week."
But UNC didn't let the midweek timing affect its performance. The Tar Heels put together their most complete performance of the season thus far, crushing the Runnin’ Bulldogs in an 11-1 win at Boshamer Stadium.
“We want to play from the first pitch to the last, no matter what,” Fox said. “That’s the sign of a good team — go pitch to pitch and keep playing.”
UNC (4-0) got the game off to a quick start, scoring five runs on Gardner-Webb (2-3) in the first inning.
Junior center fielder Brian Miller finished with three hits, an RBI and a walk in four at-bats.
“I think all of our hitters were locked in and came to the ballpark ready to play," said Miller. "So that's a testament to our whole offense and our whole team, just staying focused and not giving anything away.”
But the Tar Heels' offense didn’t stop there, scoring two more runs in the fourth before tacking on one in the seventh and three in the eighth.
“You can do some good things late in the game, and I thought we did,” Fox said. “I thought we had our best at bats against one of their better relievers late in the game."
