March 8, 2009

No. 2 Tar Heels Top No. 18 Tigers In 9-8 Thriller
Greg Holt's pinch-hit RBI single in the ninth capped a wild final two innings and lifted No. 2 North Carolina to a 9-8 series-clinching win over No. 18 Clemson Sunday at Boshamer Stadium. Kyle Seager tied career highs with four hits and four run scored, and Ryan Graepel drove in a career-best three runs for the Tar Heels (10-2, 2-1 ACC).

Winners of six of its last seven against the Tigers, Carolina has taken consecutive regular season series from Clemson (6-4, 1-2 ACC) for the first time since the ACC went to the three-game format in 1990.

The Tar Heels carried a comfortable 7-1 lead into the eighth inning, but the Tigers scored seven unanswered runs to take an 8-7 lead in the top of the ninth. Matt Sanders' two-run single off Nate Striz got Clemson back in the game in the eighth, and it took the lead with a five-run ninth, capped by a go-ahead three-run home run by Jeff Schaus off Colin Bates (1-1).

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Boston College Makes History With 12-5 Win at No. 6 Florida State
The Boston College baseball team accomplished something this weekend that has never been done - it beat Florida State in an ACC opening weekend series. The Eagles stormed into Dick Howser Stadium and took two of three from the No. 6 Seminoles with a 12-5 victory Sunday afternoon.

Since 1992, Florida State had been 43-5 in games during the conference's opening weekend before the Eagles took two of three from them this weekend. The Seminoles had swept their opening ACC series in six-straight years. FSU had not even lost a game in an ACC opening series since 2002 and hadn't faltered at home since 1997.

BC also did it at Dick Howser Stadium, one of the toughest places to play in the country. Entering the series, the Seminoles had a winning percentage of .835 (829-163-1) all-time in their home park.

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No. 8 Miami Comes From Seven Back to Sweep NC State, 9-7
The eighth-ranked University of Miami baseball team came from seven runs down after three innings to pick up a 9-7 win over NC State Sunday at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field. The come-from-behind win for the Hurricanes secured the team's second series sweep in as many weekends as well as the program's first-ever series sweep of the Wolfpack.

Trailing NC State 7-1 heading into the bottom of the fifth, Miami (10-2, 3-0 ACC) sent 11 batters to the plate in the frame, with seven of the first eight eventually scoring runs to give the `Canes an 8-7 lead after five. Yasmani Grandal led off the scoring with a lead-off home run and after the `Canes batted around, Dave DiNatale smacked a two-out double to left-center, scoring Chris Herrmann from first for what would prove to be the game-winner.

The series sweep over NC State (7-5, 0-3) marks the second straight year the `Canes swept their first ACC opponent. It also marked the team's second straight sweep this year after Miami swept No. 12 Florida in Gainesville last weekend.

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Burnette's Pinch Homer Carries Tech Past Maryland, 10-7
Pinch-hitter Chase Burnette belted a three-run home to break an eighth-inning tie as Georgia Tech defeated Maryland, 10-7, Sunday and completed a sweep of the weekend Atlanta Coast Conference series at Russ Chandler Stadium.

Tech, the nation's ninth-ranked team, improved to 9-1 on the season and 3-0 in the ACC, while Maryland fell to 4-7 and 0-3.

Burnette's second homer in as many games climaxed a see-saw affair which saw two ties and four lead changes. Mark Pope, Tech's sixth pitcher of the day, improved to 2-0 with 1-1/3 innings of scoreless relief, ending an eighth-inning Terrapin threat and leaving a pair of Terps stranded in the ninth. The freshman from Marietta, Ga., has two wins and three saves in his last five appearances.

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Duke Takes Game Three 7-5 Against Virginia Tech
Alex Hassan went 2-for-5 with a double, RBI and a run at the plate and stepped onto the mound to record his third save of the season and help Duke lock up a series-clinching 7-5 win over Virginia Tech Sunday afternoon at Jack Coombs Field.

Hassan (1-0) logged his sixth straight multi-hit game on Sunday to extend his team-leading hit streak to seven games. His first hit of the ball game was a double in the third inning, while his second was an RBI single in the seventh that put Duke ahead 7-2. He also toed the rubber for the second straight day, coming in with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning to shut down the Hokies and lock up the win.

Duke outfielder Jeremy Gould knocked three hits on the day, giving him eight base knocks and a .533 batting average for the series, which Duke (8-3, 1-1 ACC) took two games to one. Freshman center fielder Will Piwnica-Worms and third baseman Ryan McCurdy also had two hits apiece, with McCurdy driving in two RBI and Piwnica-Worms one.

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Virginia Finishes Off Sweep of Wake Forest, 21-5
The Virginia baseball team continued its recent offensive onslaught with a 21-5 pummeling of Wake Forest Sunday afternoon at Wake Forest Baseball Park. UVa swept the three-game series, the Cavaliers’ first ACC season-opening sweep since 2004 at Georgia Tech.

Virginia improved its record to 12-0 this season (3-0 ACC) – the best 12-game start in school history. The 12-game winning streak is the longest active streak in the nation, pending Georgia’s result today with Quinnipiac.

UVa racked up 47 runs in the series, the Cavaliers’ most in an ACC series since the Cavaliers piled up 50 at Maryland in 1990. For the third straight game, every Virginia starter had at least one base hit, and the Cavaliers finished the series with 61 hits, including a season-high 25 Sunday.

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