Wake Forest University
North Carolina
Wake Baseball Downs UNC, 12-7
3/17/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 17, 2001
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Wake Forest improved to 4-1 in Atlantic Coast Conference baseball action and 16-4 overall with a 12-7 win over North Carolina Saturday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill. Wake Forest pounded out 14 hits, including three home runs, for its sixth consecutive win over UNC since last year.
Steve LeFaivre gave Wake an early 1-0 lead with a first-inning homer to right-center field, but the Tar Heels answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the second on a Ryan Blake single.
Carolina then erupted with a five-run third inning, highlighted by a two-run single by Jeremy Cleveland and a three-run homer by Blake.
Wake Forest erased the Carolina lead with a six-run sixth inning and took a 7-6 advantage. The Deacons capitalized on three walks in the inning, got an RBI single from Jamie Athas, a sacrifice fly fromCory Sullivan and eventually took the lead with a two-run, pinch-hit home run by sophomore Stephen Ghutzman.
Sean Farrell knocked in a run for the Tar Heels in the bottom half of the sixth to tie the game at 7, but Wake answered with two runs in the seventh and three more in the eighth, including a two-run homer by Jamie D'Antona, for the 12-7 final margin.
UNC starter Jason Howell, who entered the game 5-0 with a 0.93 ERA, gave up four runs on five hits over 1.1 innings to take his first loss of the year. Adam Hanson (3-1) allowed one UNC run on three hits over 2.0 innings to collect the win.
D'Antona and Athas each had three-hit games for Wake Forest. D'Antona is six-for-eight in the series with two home runs and six RBI.
Wake Forest goes for the weekend sweep on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Scott Autrey (1-1) will make the start for UNC, while All-American outfielder Cory Sullivan (0-0) will get his first start of the year on the mound for the Demon Deacons.
