Tar Heels Head to Elon Feeling Optimistic

A home series loss to Miami over the weekend, accompanied by a tumble outside the top 25 polls, have head coach Mike Fox and his UNC baseball team scrambling for wins. The good news is that the road back into the polls starts on Tuesday night, when the 16-11 Tar Heels travel to face the 12-14 Elon Phoenix.

Despite the team’s struggles, senior starting pitcher Benton Moss is quietly putting together the best statistical season of his decorated college career. Boasting a 4-0 record and a microscopic 1.95 ERA, with 38 strikeouts over 27.2 innings, Moss says he has full faith in this bunch moving forward, adding that once they start coming out on the right end of some close games, they’ll be in position to make some noise in the standings.

“Once we figure out how to win the 4-3 games, and we’re going to,” says Moss, about when the Tar Heels will make a push,”When you lose a game like that you learn from it, so we’re right there.”

Carolina lost to Miami twice this past weekend on games where the score was 4-3, and each time the Hurricanes rallied in the game’s final innings to snatch victory away from UNC.

Benton Moss has an incredible 1.95 ERA to pair with his 4-0 record. (UNC Athletics)

Another man who looks primed to have a great impact on the Tar Heels’ present, and future, is freshman first baseman Zack Gahagan, who took over the team lead in RBI with a big game against Miami on Sunday. After sitting out his final year of high school ball due to injury, this level of production was completely unexpected coming into the year.

“He came in this summer off a torn ACL, he didn’t play at all (his final year) in high school, I mean he had not played in a long time, and he didn’t have a good fall, from a playing standpoint, but we didn’t expect him to,” says Coach Fox.

“The problem was he expected to. And we just kept telling him ‘you have not seen live pitching in a long, long time’, but he showed signs of being a good player.”

Gahagan is third on the team with a .289 average, along with the aforementioned team lead in RBI, with 22.

Elon’s lineup is highlighted by first team preseason All-American outfielder Casey Jones, who batted .418 last year, and holds a .337 average in 2015. With a hitter like Jones in the other dugout, Elon will present UNC with a stiff test, just as they always do, adds Coach Fox.

“As far as this week, we’re just trying to manage through today, but we always have a battle over at Elon,” says Fox.

First pitch is at 6:30 P.M and starting pitchers are still yet to be announced.