SEAHAWKS AND DUKES ELMINATED FROM NCAA BASEBALL REGIONALS

SEAHAWKS AND DUKES ELMINATED FROM NCAA BASEBALL REGIONALS

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North Carolina 7, UNC Wilmington 3
Boxscore

Marc Fleury had three hits, including a double and a triple, and drove in three runs as top-seeded UNC Chapel Hill edged second-seed UNC Wilmington, 7-3, in the regional championship game of the Cary Regional on Sunday.

The top-seeded Tar Heels (49-12) advanced to the Super Regional round with the win and will face the winner of the Myrtle Beach Regional winner. The Seahawks, who rallied with 11 runs in the ninth for a 15-11 win over Elon earlier in the day, wrapped up its season with a 44-17-1 record. The 44 wins marked a school-record for the Seahawks.

Sophomore Brian Moran (1-1) earned the win for UNC after shutting down the Seahawks in two innings of relief. Moran allowed one run on two hits and struck out three. Senior Rob Wooten earned his fourth save of the season after pitching out of a bases loaded jam in the ninth.

Senior Larry Salefsky (4-3) was credited with the loss after allowing four runs on six hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings.

Senior Jason Appel paced the Seahawks with three hits, finishing a homer shy of hitting for the cycle. Adding multi-hit games were senior Daniel Hargrave and sophomore Rhett Miller, each with two hits.

The Seahawks plated the first run of the game on a RBI single to center by Miller in the top of the second. Freshman Cody Stanley drew a 1-out walk, stole second and advanced to third on an errant throw.

After holding the Tar Heels scoreless through the first four innings, Salefsky was roughed up in the fifth when Ackley led off with a double and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt. Tim Fedroff (3-3, 2 RBI) plated Dustin Ackley with a single up the middle to tie the game. Tim Federowicz then gave UNC its first lead of the game, 2-1, with a single to left that scored Fedroff. Fleury then drilled a 3-run homer to right off sophomore reliever Jesse Haney to make it 5-1.

With two out in the sixth Haney surrendered a RBI single to Fedroff to give the Tar Heels a 6-1 advantage.

Appel tripled with two out in the seventh and senior Mark Carver knocked in his 82nd run of the season with a single one batter later to cut UNC's lead to 6-2.

The Tar Heels added to their lead in the bottom of the eighth with a run to push it to 7-2. Fleury doubled off freshman reliever Cameron Roth and would later in the inning on a sacrifice fly.

The Seahawks attempted their second ninth-inning rally of the day when sophomore Mike Rooney and freshman Alex Hill led off the inning with consecutive singles. With one out, Appel picked up his 100th hit of the season, a single, and knocked in Rooney to make it 7-3. Wooten closed out the game by retiring two of the three batters he faced.

Senior Nate Hall, sophomore Bobby Leeper, junior Brad Holt and Carver were named to the All-Regional team for the Seahawks.


South Carolina 7, James Madison 5
Boxscore

Junior short stop Reese Havens smacked a two-run walkoff home run to lift South Carolina over James Madison 7-5 in an elimination game in the Raleigh Regional of the 2008 NCAA Baseball Championship at Doak Field at Dail Park.

“It was a good college baseball game,” noted JMU head coach Spanky McFarland. “Alex [Valadja] had a nice start. This team never gives up. We’ll battle, we’re not afraid of anybody. We just came up a little short today.”

USC improved to 40-22 and advances to Sunday night’s championship game against N.C. State at 6 p.m. JMU ended its season at 39-19, the seventh-highest win total in program history.

South Carolina led 5-3 going into the bottom of the ninth. Sophomore Matt Browning hit a one-out single and freshman McKinnon Langston added a two-out single. The Dukes were down to their last strike when redshirt sophomore Chris Johnson laced a double to the gap on a one ball, two strike count to score both runs as Langston narrowly beat the throw to the plate.

In the bottom of the ninth, freshman Scott Wingo singled to lead off the inning. Havens then socked a full-count offering well over the wall in right field for the game winner.

The loss came despite the best performance of the season by JMU freshman starter Alex Valadja. After missing much of the season due to illness, Valadja has seen sporadic work over the final few weeks. However, he stepped up on Sunday to work a career-high 5 1/3 innings while allowing four runs, three earned, on five hits with four strikeouts. Valadja retired nine in a row at one point.

Commented Valadja, “It’s taken time to get my body back to where it needed to be. I felt great today. I threw the ball where I wanted. I stayed focused and let it fly. There were a couple of pitches that I’d like to have back. My only thought was to stay calm and give us a chance to win. I wanted to keep it close and keep the team in the game.”

Sophomore Kyle Hoffman worked the final 2 2/3 innings and took the loss to finish the year at 6-5. He had allowed just one run on two hits prior to the two in the ninth.

Junior Mike Cisco earned the win after blowing the save to improve to 6-3. Sophomore Blake Cooper received the no decision after tossing 8 1/3 innings and limiting JMU to four runs, one earned, on seven hits with a career-high nine strikeouts.

Browning was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI. Langston was also 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run. The pair led the Dukes with five and six hits respectively in the Regional.

Junior slugger Justin Smoak, likely a top 10 draft pick in next week’s Major League Baseball draft, launched a pair of home runs to left field off Valadja, driving in three runs in the game. The home runs for Havens was his only hit while also walking twice and scoring twice. Wingo was 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs.

South Carolina took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Havens reached on a leadoff walk after his popped foul was dropped for an error. Smoak homered to left field two batters later.

The Gamecocks added a run in the second when Wingo's fly to center field scored junior right fielder Andrew Crisp, who reached on a fielder's choice and advanced to third on sophomore catcher Kyle Enders' single.

Smoak homered to left again in the third to raise South Carolina's lead to 4-0.

JMU pulled to within 4-3 in the top of the fourth with three runs after two were out. Senior second baseman Joe Lake was safe on an error to start the inning. Cooper fanned the next two batters before JMU got three straight RBI hits. Browning produced the first run with a single to left after Lake had stolen second, and junior first baseman Lee Bujakowski followed with a double off the wall in left and Langston added a run-scoring single to center field.

Looking back on the weekend, Langston said, “It’s a learning experience. We came in here as a four seed, and people probably thought we weren’t going to do anything. I think we made a little noise. WE had a great team and played well together. There’s a lot of heart in this team.”

JMU will have the bulk of its roster back in 2009 looking to defend its first CAA Championship. The Dukes will lose possibly as few as two players from the roster, pending the results of next week’s MLB First Year Player Draft. Freshmen and sophomores compiled 60% of the 25-man roster in 2008 for JMU.

UNC Wilmington 15, Elon 11
Boxscore

Trailing 11-4 in the ninth, UNC Wilmington exploded for 11 runs as the Seahawks eliminated rival and third-seed Elon with a 15-11 win on Sunday at the NCAA Cary Regional at the USA Baseball Complex.

The Seahawks ran their record to 44-16-1 and reached the regional championship game for the third time in four NCAA tournament appearances. UNCW will face top-seeded UNC Chapel Hill at 520 p.m. The Phoenix, meanwhile, concluded their season with a 44-18 mark.

Senior pinch hitter Shane French knocked in the go-ahead runs with a 2-run double off the right center field wall to make it 13-11. Senior Daniel Hargrave knocked in pinch runner Matt Holt and would later score the final run on a wild pitch.

Offensively for the Seahawks, sophomore Bobby Leeper had four of UNCW's 14 hits. Leeper knocked in three and scored twice. Fellow sophomore Mike Rooney added two hits, drove in two and scored twice.

Sophomore Bryan Booth (1-0) earned the win throwing 2/3 of an inning in relief for the Seahawks.

Freshman Tom Girdwood was saddled with the loss after allowing five runs on three hits and a pair of walks and not retiring a batter.

After seeing both teams fail to score in the first three innings, Leeper tripled in senior Nate Hall in the fourth, who doubled earlier in the inning, to give UNCW a 1-0 lead. On the play, though, Leeper was called out after coming off the bag at third.

Bennett Davis tied the game with a leadoff homer to left in the bottom of the inning. Back-to-back singles by Chase Austin and Mike Melillo put runners at first and third for the Phoenix, but Seahawk starter Seth Frankoff induced Mike Lobacz to hit into an inning-ending double play.

Senior Mark Carver started a 2-out rally in the sixth after being hit by a pitch and a walk to Hall moved him to second. Leeper lined a 3-1 fastball into left to score Carver and give UNCW a 2-1 lead. With the bases loaded and two out, senior pinch hitter Jes Snyder lined a 2-strike single to left to plate two runs and give UNCW a 4-1 lead.

Elon fired back in the bottom of the frame with six runs to take the lead, 7-4, as 10 batters made their way to the plate. Frankoff allowed a lead off double and left the game in favor of freshman reliever Cameron Roth. Roth retired the first batter, but Elon erupted with six consecutive hits off Roth and freshman reliever Stephen Harrold. Roth was tagged for three runs, all earned, on three hits in 1/3 of an inning.

The Seahawks looked to answer in the seventh when Jared Kernodle hit the first two batters, but the freshman worked out of the jam by retiring the heart of the Seahawk lineup to preserve Elon's lead.

Elon continued to add to its lead in the eighth by taking an 11-4 lead with four more runs.

In the ninth, senior Jason Appel became the school's career-hit leader with a RBI single. Appel concluded his career with 257 hits. Carver followed with a RBI single and Hall doubled two more runs in to make it 11-8. Rooney tied the game with a 2-run single and French followed with a ringing double off the wall to give UNCW the lead.