Chapel Hill: Game Two
By Kenny Cook - June 09, 2007
North Carolina will try to seal the deal against South Carolina tonight and join Mississippi State in Omaha for the College World Series. However, to do so they'll have to hold down the potent USC bats and get strong pitching from freshman Alex White (6-4, 3.87). They'll also have to come up with some offense against Arik Hempy (6-3, 3.38), the junior lefthander who bounced back from Tommy John surgery to be a force on the mound for the Gamecocks this year.
UNC came from six runs down to score 9 runs with two outs in the sixth and seventh innings last night to take game one, 9-6. There were 2,895 in attendance for that one.
Despite the possibility of this game or the next sending the Tar Heels back to the CWS, it's been rather quiet around campus. There were scattered fans tailgating as I drove in (mostly South Carolina fans), but other than the immediate area around Boshamer Stadium, you wouldn't know a big-time college baseball game is taking place tonight. Perhaps the UNC fans haven't quite gotten used to being a national baseball power, something the Gamecocks' fans have down pat. Or maybe they're just saving themselves for when it really matters tonight.
It's slightly cooler today (only about 90%) but still rather humid, so it will be sticky again for tonight's game.
Starting Lineups:
North Carolina
LF Reid Fronk
2B Garrett Gore
1B Dustin Ackley
DH Tim Federowicz
SS Josh Horton
3B Chad Flack
RF Tim Fedroff
CF Seth Williams
C Benji Johnson
The changes for UNC- with the lefthander Hempy pitching, Fedroff drops from the 2 spot to the 7 spot, and Gore moves from the 9 hole to the 2 hole. Federowicz is DH rather than catching, and Johnson will be behind the plate.
South Carolina
2B Travis Jones
3B James Darnell
1B Justin Smoak
DH Phil Disher
C Trent Kline
LF Andrew Crisp
RF Harley Lail
SS Reese Havens
CF Steven Reinhold
For South Carolina, Crisp moves from RF to LF, Hail is in RF in the hitting spot of Willard. Havens and Reinhold swap spots in the batting order.
They've played a lot of country music on the PA system so far- Eric Sorenson must have chosen the playlist.
I just passed ESPN's Kyle Peterson as I was leaving the pressbox and heating out into the sauna, so it must be about time to get going.
By now you know the drill: Touching the Bases will return at the end of the game with complete analysis and wrap-up of today's game. To follow the action with live pitch-by-pitch information, head to Gametracker.
Posted by Kenny Cook at 05:43 PM on June 09, 2007
Comment
