With some time to kill this afternoon between different rounds of lab work and the UNC/Oklahoma game, I took some time to wander down to Boshamer Stadium and took in about three innings of the UNC/Virginia game and take some pictures. I mean, a chance to watch Dustin Ackley in action and see some live baseball? Who wouldn’t want that? I had to leave after the third inning, which meant that I missed out on UNC’s victory via the ever-so-rare walkoff beaning, but I did get a chance to grab some good pictures.
As I approached the stadium, I heard the PA man announce, “Now batting for North Carolina, number 13, Dustin Ackley!” I hustled in to the stadium and just as soon as I could see the field, Ackley was weakly flying out to left field. Following him was freshman second baseman Levi Michael, who laced a single into the outfield for his first of four hits. This is him on first.
I wasn’t all that impressed with UNC’s starter, Matt Harvey. He really struggled with his control quite a bit today. Here’s a runner on first and Ackley holding him on.
I don’t know who this batter is from Virginia, but I like this picture. 
And how awesome would it have been to live in this dorm?
The pitching mound conference. You can see Mike Fox with his head down, like he dreads taking Harvey out of the game.
He did, though, and it was the right move. He brought in junior lefty Brian Moran, who more or less shut Virginia down over 6 1/3 innings. He did a really nice job working out of a bases-loaded no-out mess that Harvey left for him.
In the third inning. I finally got to see a full at-bat for Ackely. 
Unfortunately, Virginia had no intentions of pitching to him. 
He walked on five pitches and didn’t swing once the whole at-bat. Right after his walk, though, Michaels ripped a triple into right field and Ackley easily scored from first. He’s got pretty good speed and it’s not a surprise that scouts want to see him move off of first base.
Two batters after Michaels, the aluminum bat effect really came in to play when catcher Mark Fleury (yes, that’s really his name) hit what seemed like a pop-up down the third base line that bounced off of the fence for another triple. Here’s Fleury batting, for the really die-hard Penguin fans out there.
Since it was kind of a last second decision to run over to the park this morning, I didn’t really do as much reading up on either our team or Virginia as I would’ve liked to in order to have a better idea of who I should keep an eye on. Still, it was a nice afternoon and it was awesome to see some live baseball. There’s still a few weekends left that the team is in town, so hopefully I can get back on a night when Alex White pitches and have more to share than pictures. In regards to the pictures, I do have much higher res versions of all of these, but was afraid to post them with so many pics in one post. Since I’m planning on going to a lot of minor league baseball this year, I may start a WHYGAVS Flickr stream where I’ll post more and better quality versions of the pictures I take this summer. If that happens, I’ll of course let you guys know.
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