Leaning against the dugout rail after his team dropped a 3-0 decision to the No. 6-ranked University of North Carolina, Elon University baseball coach Mike Kennedy couldn't refrain from using sarcasm to elaborate on his team's offensive woes.

"I love it man, it's fun," he said. "I love putting zeroes up there every time we go out there and bouncing out to the shortstop."

Three infield hits were all the Phoenix could muster against Tar Heel pitcher Benton Moss. The freshman entered the game with just 5.1 innings under his belt in two starts. By the time North Carolina (10-2) coach Mike Fox walked to the mound and took the ball from his pitcher's hand, Moss was two outs shy of a complete game shutout.

"Their pitcher had 99 pitches going into the ninth inning," said Elon first baseman Ryan Kinsella. "We didn't work counts the way we need to. We just gotta do a better job of seeing pitches and getting into better hitting counts."

The offensive ineptitude has become a common theme for Elon (7-5, 2-1 Southern Conference). The Phoenix batting average has shrunk to .207, one of the worst marks in the country.

"I think everybody's frustrated," Kennedy said. "More of the frustrating thing is just simply there's just not a lot of opportunities. We haven't put a lot of opportunities to score runs. It's one thing if you're hitting the ball right at people, but we're not even doing that."

The Phoenix did have one opportunity against North Carolina. Back-to-back infield singles by Jake Luce and Alex Swim put runners on first and second with one man out. But Moss struck out Kinsella and Garrett Koster and ended the threat.

Kennedy acknowledged that those first inning outs were huge. Elon has had trouble scoring early, putting across just three runs in the first three innings of the past 10 games.

"If we could score in the first inning, I think you'd see a party in this dugout," Kennedy said. "If we score five runs, I think I'm going to take them all out to eat steak. I've gotta figure out something to motivate them."

No Phoenix runner reached second base after the first inning, ruining a perfectly good pitching effort.

Redshirt sophomore Jim Stokes threw 73 pitches and gave up two runs — one earned — in a mostly effective five innings of work. But after missing all of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, he still showed some signs of rust."

"(My arm) feels good," Stokes said. "I'm right where I want to be. Some of my off-speed pitches still haven't, I got some work to do."

The tests won't get easier any time soon for the Elon offense. Friday night, the Phoenix take on Georgia Southern and ace Chris Beck, who Baseball America rates as a potential first round pick in the 2012 amateur draft.

"It can't get any worse," Kennedy said. "To be quite honest with you, we'll probably get shut out again. But it can't get any worse."