Johnson nearly perfect as UNC baseball beats Virginia Tech

North Carolina

Johnson nearly perfect as UNC baseball beats Virginia Tech

May 19, 2012

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Sophomore Hobbs Johnson carried a perfect game into the eighth inning Saturday afternoon to help No. 6 North Carolina claim its fifth ACC sweep of the year as the Tar Heels downed Virginia Tech, 6-2.

Johnson struck out a career-high 10 batters as he improved to 6-1 on the year and fueled Carolina to its 13th straight victory.

Johnson was dealing from the start as he went to just one three-ball count on the day, which came against the final batter of the fourth inning.

The left-hander struck out a pair in the first, one in the second and third and two more in the fourth as he retired the first 12 batters he faced to open the contest but would not be done there.

The Tar Heel offense pegged Johnson to a 2-0 lead after three frames as they pushed across single runs in the second and third innings.

Jacob Stallings opened the second with a lead off single and moved to second on a ground out before coming around to score the game's opening run on a Cody Stubbs RBI single.

Stallings was a factor once again in the third inning when he nearly left the yard. Colin Moran started a two-out rally with a single lined up the middle and came around to score when Stallings laced a double off the left field wall to make it 2-0.

Johnson needed just 10 pitches for a 1-2-3 fifth inning before his offense nearly tacked on more runs in the bottom half.

The Tar Heels loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth as head coach Mike Fox brought on Tommy Coyle to pinch hit. Coyle lined a ball at the third baseman who knocked the ball down and stepped on third to end the threat.

Johnson returned to the mound for the sixth and did not throw a ball in another perfect frame that saw two more strikeouts.

Adam Griffin came through with a two-run single in the sixth to plate two more Carolina runs and bump UNC's lead to 4-0.

Another scoreless frame out of Johnson in the seventh saw the Rocky Mount, N.C., native force a fly out to left and strike out his 9th and 10th batters of the afternoon.

Coyle redeemed himself in the seventh when he turned on a Jake Atwell offering for a two-run home run to right field to extend Carolina's lead to 6-0. The home run was Coyle's fourth of the year and second this week after homering against UNC Asheville.

Johnson retired his 22nd consecutive batter to open the eighth inning before Jake Atwell connected on a seeing-eye single just past the diving Coyle at second base to break up the perfect game bid.

Ronnie Shaban followed with a single to center that Chaz Frank over ran allowing Atwell to score and Shaban reach third base. Brendon Hayden made it three straight hits with a RBI single up the middle as the Hokies climbed to within four at 6-2 before Johnson forced Kyle Wernicki into a line out to end the inning.

R.C. Orlan and Michael Morin combined on a scoreless ninth as the Tar Heels won their 13th straight game.

On senior day Jacob Stallings paced the offense with a 3-for-5 performance as he scored a run and drove in two more. Stallings' RBI double in the third was his 21st double of the year which moved him into the UNC single season top ten list.

Chaz Frank, Colin Moran and Cody Stubbs all notched two-hit games for the Tar Heels, while Adam Griffin and Tommy Coyle each contributed a pair of RBIs.

Johnson needed just 96 pitches to go eight innings allowing just three hits and two unearned runs. The southpaw did not walk a batter and set a new career high with 10 strikeouts.

The ACC sweep was the fifth of the year for the Tar Heels who became the first Tar Heel team in school history to accomplish the feat.

Carolina finished tied with the 2006 and 2008 teams for the most ACC wins in a single season as the Tar Heels finished with a 22-8 mark in league play.

The 22 league wins earned the Tar Heels the No. 2 overall seed in the ACC Tournament and they will be paired with No. 7 Wake Forest, No. 6 Miami and No. 3 NC State in a round robin pool. No. 1 Florida State will take on No. 8 Georgia Tech, No. 5 Clemson and No. 4 Virginia in the other pool with the pool winners meeting in Sunday's championship.

The schedule for the ACC Tournament will be announced at noon on Sunday by the conference office.

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RE: Johnson nearly perfect as UNC baseball beats Virginia Tech

The Diamond Heels would love to get a CWS title for coach Fox! He deserves it. We should have had one for him in 06.

Go Heels!
- Posted by BeastOnTheHill

It would be awesome to win the CWS for Fox! Funny you mentioned the '06 tam, because this team was compared to them after sweeping VT. While Roy gets so much attention, Coach Fox quietly goes about the business of fielding good talent and harnessing that talent to successful seasons year after year. He does deserve to win it all, but that's a real tough task.

Toddler - you're right about State - they're playing really well now and anyone looking past them is making a mistake.

RE: Johnson nearly perfect as UNC baseball beats Virginia Tech

UNC, and Fla. St. are the best in the ACC, and two of the best in the country. Hope they meet in the finals. I agree also that they should have won it all in 06. But dont count the Pack out!

RE: Johnson nearly perfect as UNC baseball beats Virginia Tech

The Diamond Heels would love to get a CWS title for coach Fox! He deserves it. We should have had one for him in 06.

Go Heels!

RE: Johnson nearly perfect as UNC baseball beats Virginia Tech

That was one of the most dominating pitching performances I've seen pro or college. Absolutely unbelievable and he was mowing them down. One time the DH for VT, a LH, came up and Hobbs struck him out in 3 pitches looking. The top of the 8th burned him as UNC got some guys on base and brought in some runs bottom of the 7th and VT had to change pitchers. Hobbs got cold during the long inning as evidenced by him bouncing the first pitch in the 8th (my opinion). Still, 22 up and 22 down before a seeing eye slow roll single that Coyle got the glove on was off the charts for a 19-20 year old (sophomore). The top of UNCs lineup is raking and Moran coming back has really made them more dangerous.

RE: Johnson nearly perfect as UNC baseball beats Virginia Tech

Carolina's pitching in the sweeps over Duke and VT has been nothing short of remarkable. They will play State in roundrobin pool play in the ACCT. I assume it will be the third game for both teams with possibly a berth in the final on the line.

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