Heels dump Pirates

CHAPEL HILL

Alex White silenced East Carolina's big bats with a dominant pitching performance yesterday afternoon, leading North Carolina to a 10-1 win in the NCAA Tournament's Chapel Hill Super Regional.

White, rocked by an early homer that gave East Carolina a 1-0 lead, settled down and took control in front of 4,316, the largest crowd in Boshamer Stadium history, to get his first win since April 24 and put North Carolina one win away from a fourth consecutive trip to the College World Series.

White struck out 12 batters, a career high, and scattered eight hits after Brandon Henderson's homer. He pitched 81/3 innings, his longest outing since April 17, before giving way to reliever Nate Striz, and got his eighth win of the season.

White got his sixth NCAA Tournament win, the most for a pitcher in North Carolina history. He received a standing ovation after handing the ball to Striz, walking off the mound and going into the dugout, where he was greeted by jubilant teammates.

"Usually when I struggle is when I can't hit a spot," White said. "I found the strike zone late and put my fastball where I wanted to. And obviously when you do that, and you throw a secondary pitch behind it, you're going to have a good game."

White threw 128 pitches, 79 of which were strikes. The Pirates had two runners on in the first inning, the third, the sixth and the seventh, but White bore down each time, with help from the Tar Heels' defense, and didn't allow any runs.

A few of White's pitches reached 95 mph. He was at 92 to 93 mph for much of the game.

"I thought the story of the game was Alex on the mound for us, keeping East Carolina at bay a little bit until we had the big inning," said Coach Mike Fox of North Carolina.

"He started off a little shaky, I think, with not a lot of first-pitch strikes, but we've seen that from Alex before where he can weather the first couple of innings and get stronger as he goes."

The Tar Heels improved to 46-16 and can end the best-of-3 regional by winning today's noon game. The Pirates fell to 46-19 overall and 0-5 in Super Regional play, and can force a decisive game on Monday by winning today.

East Carolina reached the Super Regional after losing 12-2 last week to South Carolina in regional play and then beating South Carolina twice to advance. Henderson said he was confident that his team can repeat the success.

"We got together as a team after the game and said last weekend we were in the same boat," Henderson said. "The good thing is it's best two out of three. We've got to come back out tomorrow and keep swinging. We had plenty of opportunities, but we didn't cash in."

White was backed by 17 hits, the second most allowed by the Pirates this season. All of the Tar Heels' starters had at least one hit, and five had at least two. Third baseman Kyle Seager, had four hits, including a home run in the bottom of the eighth, and freshman Levi Michael, a second baseman from Welcome, had three hits including two doubles.

The Tar Heels led 2-1 when White allowed a single by Devin Harris to lead off the fourth inning. White ended the threat by striking out the next three batters, and he retired the Pirates in order in the fifth, adding another strikeout.

Fox said he thought those two innings were crucial for White.

"That's where his competitiveness kind of kicks in," Fox said. "He just kind of dials it up a notch. Sometimes he's at his best when people are in scoring position."

North Carolina took command by scoring seven runs in the sixth. It had seven hits in the inning, six of them singles. The first six batters reached base, making the score 5-1.

Ryan Graepel and Michael were on third and second as the inning's first two batters. Garrett Gore followed with a soft liner to right on a half swing that fell between East Carolina's right fielder, second baseman and first baseman for the third hit.

Graepel and Michal scored to give UNC a 4-1 lead on what Fox considered the key hit of the game, given that Gore had two strikes in the count.

"You have to get a little lucky when you have big innings," Fox said. "They're one strike away from maybe getting an out or getting a ground-ball double play.

"He was able to kind of flip his bat out there. It's an aluminum bat kind of thing. We found a hole. It was our day. We just hit some balls where they weren't."

■ Bill Cole can be reached at bcole@wsjournal.com.