Baseball Weekly Recap

The Heels had two games canceled by rain this past week. Weather caused the Wednesday home game against UNC Asheville and the Sunday game at Virginia Tech to be postponed and cancelled respectively. Rain also forced the Tuesday home game against High Point to end after only six innings. The action on the diamond was relatively unremarkable this past week. Carolina was outscored by three runs on the week, but managed to cobble together two wins due to clutch pitching and defense.

Tuesday Game (High Point W 1-0 in 6)

Hunter Williams continued his run of pitching form, picking up another win as Carolina beat High Point at home. Williams now has a 1.14 ERA for the season and has picked up a win in each of his last four starts and only allowed two runs over those starts. Carolina's run was scored by back to back doubles from Alex Raburn and Korey Dunbar. High Point's best chance was in the third when they got runners on second and third with no outs before Williams threw three straight strike-outs to get out of the jam.

Friday Game (Virginia Tech L 8-3)

Carolina lost to Virginia Tech for the first time since 2007 in the series opener Friday. Zac Gallen started out fine before losing control in the sixth inning and giving up four straight hits including two home runs to begin the sixth. Carolina never got closer than three runs away after the top of the seventh as Tech added two more insurance runs in the bottom of the inning. Landon Lassiter was the Heel's offensive highlight of the day, getting three hits and an RBI.

Saturday Game (Virginia Tech W 11-10)

Carolina starter J.B. Bukauskas had his roughest outing of the season, allowing eight earned runs in only 2.0 innings thrown on only 42 pitches. Bukauskas never had his customary polish as he allowed six hits, three walks and had no strike-outs in his short stint on the mound. Tar Heel relievers Trevor Kelley and Trent Thornton were able to make up for Bukauskas' struggles, striking out seven and allowing only two more runs for the rest of the game. Carolina came up with just enough offense to beat the Hokies. All nine of the Carolina starters reached bases and the Heels loaded them up twice even though Carolina amassed just seven hits. The Tech pitchers combined for ten walks and two hit batsmen to give Carolina all the base-runners they needed to eke out the win. Landon Lassiter, Korey Dunbar and Tyler Ramirez each scored twice for the Heels. Elijah Sutherland had three RBIs to lead Carolina.

Carolina is poised to play five games this week highlighted by a weekend home series against Boston College. The Heels will play again the following Tuesday before taking a week off for spring semester final exams.