In the loss against St. John’s Saturday, North Carolina coach Mike Fox blamed the defense.
In Sunday’s 5-3 win over East Carolina, UNC’s defense responded well to the criticism.
The Pirates were held scoreless until the sixth inning due mostly to an active Tar Heel defense.
Michael Russell keyed UNC’s defense from short stop, coming up with big plays throughout the game, including a double play in the fourth inning to prevent ECU designated hitter Drew Reynolds from batting in Tim Younger.
“I particularly remember the one off of Drew Reynolds,” starting pitcher Benton Moss said. “Michael Russell was right there in good position. And I think that was a key part of that inning because had that ball gone through, they may have pushed one across.”
Russell also came up big in the seventh inning as he was instrumental in all three of ECU’s outs.
After RC Orlan replaced Benton Moss on the mound, Orlan nearly gave up a base hit to the first batter he faced, John Wooten. As the ball sailed dangerously near the hole in between second and third base, Russell sprang into action, grabbing the ball and flipping it second base for an out.
The next batter up, Jay Cannon, tried to place the ball in the same pocket. But once again Russell was quick on his feet, caught the ball off a bounce and tossed it to second base. Tommy Coyle then turned and sent the ball onto first for the double play.
“They were big, to get two outs in one play is always a big deal. We fought until the end,” ECU left fielder Tim Younger said.
After a previous game of lackluster defense, Fox said this win was a reminder of UNC’s typical winning formula – solid pitching and good defense.
“(It was) pitching and defense,” Fox said. “Today was very typical of a lot of our wins. We don’t look the best in the batter’s box but we somehow got it done. Our pitching did the job and I thought Michael Russell was really good at short and made a couple of big plays.”
The Tar Heels will face St. John’s in a rematch Sunday at 6 p.m. and will have to win to keep their hopes of advancing out of the regional alive.
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