ELON, N.C. — An early deficit was too much for the Elon baseball team to overcome as the Phoenix dropped its final home game of the 2014 season by a 12-6 margin to the visiting North Carolina Tar Heels on Wednesday night at Latham Park.
UNC (29-19) jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the first inning. The big blow that frame was a three-run homer off the bat of Joe Dudek. The Tar Heels extended the lead to 7-0 after three innings before Elon got on the board.
The Phoenix (26-22) scored one in the last of the fourth when Casey Jones sent one over the wall in center with two outs. After UNC got that run back in the fifth, Elon’s offense came through with three runs to make it an 8-4 game after six innings. Ryan Cooper got things going with a bunt single which was followed by a walk to Jones. With two outs and Cooper and Jones both in scoring position, a hit batter and a walk forced in the second Phoenix tally. Wil Leathers followed by sending the first pitch he saw into left for a two-RBI single.
Both squads scored twice in the seventh, Elon on a Cooper ground out and a Danny Lynch single, before the Tar Heels added its final two in the ninth.
Jones now has hits in 33 of his last 34 games and raised his average to a SoCon-best .411 thanks to a 2-for-3 evening.
John Antonelli (0-1) took the loss as he allowed five runs on five hits in one inning.
The win went to Taylore Cherry (1-2) who was charged with four runs on four hits in 5.2 innings.
Elon will play its final Southern Conference series this weekend as the Phoenix visits Furman for three games. The set gets underway on Friday at 6 p.m.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
North Carolina 5 1 1 0 1 0 2 0 2 12 13 0
Elon 0 0 0 1 0 3 2 0 0 6 8 1
Win – Cherry, T (1-2). Loss – Antonelli (0-1). Save – None.
Umpires – HP: Greg Street 1B: Nelson Smith 3B: Roger Kinley
Start: 6:30 pm Time: 3:22 Attendance: 803
Weather: Ptly Cldy, 76 deg., Winds:ESE4