Tar Heels' Bats Too Much, ORU Eliminated

Oral Roberts couldn't keep the high-powered North Carolina offense in check and surrendered double-digit hits.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 11:47 am

By: News On 6

Originally Published: Jun 6, 2010 4:40 PM CDT

More Norman Regional baseball coverage from Oklahoma Sports
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- Oklahoma Tops North Carolina in Dramatic Fashion
- Golloway's Faith Rewarded in Win over Tar Heels

Gerald Goodridge
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

NORMAN, Oklahoma -- Two home runs in the fifth inning propelled North Carolina to a 12-4 win over Oral Roberts to advance and knock the Golden Eagles out of the NCAA Tournament.

Tied 2-2 after four, Levi Michael sparked the scoring with a first-pitch home run to take a one-run advantage. With two out and two on base, Seth Baldwin sent one over the left field wall to score three runs and give the Tar Heels a (37-21) 6-2 lead.

Both starting pitchers battled for the first three innings. North Carolina starter Chris Munnelly (3-2) didn’t allow a hit through the first three innings. He was pulled in the fifth after allowing three earned runs on eight hits in the fourth and the fifth.

Dan Martony (1-2) received a loss for the outing after giving up four earned runs on six hits in 1.2 innings of service. He was one of five pitchers that took the mound for ORU (36-27). Collectively the Golden Eagles gave up 11 earned runs on 17 hits.

North Carolina broke the scoreless tie in the top of the fourth with a no-out RBI single by Jesse Wierzbicki to score Jacob Stallings from third. Three at-bats later Mike Cavasini singled to shallow left field to bring Seth Baldwin home and take a 2-0 lead.

In the next half inning with runners on second and third, Chris Elder singled to left to tie the game at 2-2. The Golden Eagles’ only other run of the game came in the bottom of the fifth on a Nick Baligod single to shallow center to bring Bennett Pickar home.

Up 6-3 in the top of the sixth, North Carolina added two more runs to put the game out of reach. An RBI triple by Ryan Graepel would score Mike Cavasini from first to push the lead to four runs. In the next at-bat, Michael hit a sacrifice fly to left field to bring Graepel home and take an 8-3 lead.

Four more runs in the top of the eighth extended the lead to nine runs, closing the door on a Golden Eagles comeback.

This was ORU’s 13th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, only advancing past the regional round once since 1998.

Oral Roberts finished the season after setting breaking the school’s single-season home record with 105 on the season. Seth Furmanek’s 25 homers ranks as the second-highest single-season total and puts him third in school history with 42 career home runs.