Eleven.

A lesson to all young pitchers: if a batter sends a particular pitch 425 feet out of the park, don’t throw it to him again in his second at-bat. It will, like the first pitch, go real far, real fast, right out of the stadium. Bryant Gaines was otherwise stellar, the bullpen was beastly, and we scored just enough runs on skittery UNC-A errors and timely two-out hitting to win. Gorgeous night, good company, quick game.

(The two home runs that Gaines gave up to UNC-A cleanup hitter Patrick Koontz remind me of John Manual talking about last year’s bullpen, in which he said that their modus operandi had, unfortunately, been to throw the ball really hard and then watch it go the other direction even harder. This year’s bullpen, though, is pretty bangin’. In two years, when the freshmen are juniors, our pitching staff is going to be fierce.)