Errors Mar UNC Victory: Hokies Score Four on Three Errors, but Miller Pitches Strong
By Rachel Carter, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
Apr. 15–Don’t let Virginia Tech’s four runs fool you.
Andrew Miller didn’t have much to do with it.
The North Carolina ace survived three errors that turned into four runs as the No. 3 Tar Heels topped the Hokies 9-4 on Friday night at Boshamer Stadium.
Miller, a junior lefty, pitched eight innings for the Heels (29-7, 10-6 ACC) with four walks and two strikeouts. Miller estimated that 95 percent of his 109 pitches were fastballs.
“There was no game plan from the start to do that, but I went out there and they just kept hitting ground balls,” Miller said. “And you can’t get hurt that bad by ground balls. Every now and then, one’ll get through for a base hit, but it’s a lot better than a double down the gap and home runs.
“Until they proved to me that that’s what they were going to do, I was going to keep throwing fastballs.”
Miller (8-0) lowered his ERA to 1.33 on the season and has given up only two earned runs over his past four starts.
Although Miller worked with some of his best stuff, the same could not be said for the defense. Virginia Tech (14-20, 2-14) scored in the first inning after an error pushed Bryan Thomas home with two outs.
Miller’s first two batters grounded out, and then Thomas lined a single to center. He moved to second when UNC third baseman Reid Fronk booted a ball. Thomas scored on Sean O’Brien’s single. Then Carolina left fielder Jay Cox missed his cutoff, which put O’Brien on second.
Miller got a groundout to end the inning.
UNC’s offense exploded for Miller in the third inning, scoring four of the first five batters. Carolina had threatened earlier in the second when the Hokies yanked starter Evan Frederickson.
Frederickson didn’t give up a hit, but walked five of his nine batters.
After Frederickson, the Hokies turned to Josh Canova, who pitched six innings and gave up six runs on nine hits for the night. He took his first loss of the season.
Although Carolina seemed to be in control, another error allowed Virginia Tech to score three and get back in the game.
The Heels didn’t kept the game tied for long, scoring five in the eighth inning, but that offense wasn’t enough to make their coach happy.
“We were not ready to play out of the gate. We’re very disappointed in that,” Carolina coach Mike Fox said. “We basically played about two innings. I thought Andrew deserved a lot better than that because … this was one of his better performances …”
Josh Horton drove in the game-winning run on a two-run single. He went 1-for-3 from the plate and walked twice. Carolina’s Benji Johnson led the way at the plate, going 3-for-5 with one RBI and two runs scored.
In addition to Miller, the Heels got a strong outing from Andrew Carignan, who inherited two base runners with no outs in the ninth and struck out the Hokies’ next three.
The Heels’ series with Virginia Tech continues today at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
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