UNC Baseball: Week 8 Recap

A series opening win, the North Carolina Tar Heels dropped the final two games of last weekend’s series versus Georgia Tech. The Heels find themselves a game behind the Yellow Jackets for the Coastal Division lead and have dropped a few spots in the polls.

Here are the latest rankings for the Tar Heels:

• D1Baseball.com Top 25: 21
• NCBWA: 19
• Baseball America: 21
• USA Today Coaches Poll: 18
• RPI: 17

Below are Carolina’s latest results:

In the series opener in Atlanta, the Tar Heels got off to a good start. In the first two innings, Carolina scored enough to go the distance and earn the victory. The exclamation point during these innings was a two-run home run by Jackson Hesterlee. Dylan Harris and Aaron Sabato added a pair of home runs in the sixth to extend the UNC lead. Ike Freeman drove in two in the ninth to cap off the 11-4 victory. Tyler Baum had six strikeouts in early six innings pitched to earn the win.

On Saturday, UNC fell in a major hole early in the game. Heading into the final third of the game, the Tar Heels were down 9-2, with Danny Serretti and Dylan Enwiller as the only contributors in the third with a couple of RBIs. In the seventh, a Freeman RBI and a Michael Busch sac fly got two more back for the Heels. Serretti plated two more with his double to left during the eighth. Georgia Tech scored one the bottom half of the eighth and led UNC 10-7. Carolina rallied once again. Leading the charge was Serretti, who drove in the tying run off his fifth hit and third double of the game. With one out in the ninth and the scored knotted at 10, a Yellow Jackets walk-off sac fly thwarted the Carolina comeback.

In the final game of the series, Busch started the scoring with a huge two-out, three-run home run in the third. However, Georgia Tech responded in the bottom half of the inning with their own two-out, three-run home run. Sabato put UNC ahead by a run with a solo shot, but the Yellow Jackets answered with two runs and did not relinquish the lead. Another two-out, three-run home run in the eighth put the game out of reach and Georgia Tech won the game and series.

Tuesday night’s game versus UNCG was over by the end of the third. The Tar Heels held a 15-2 lead after the third. Enwiller and Ashton McGree each had four RBIs and four other UNC starters drove in runs. Coach Mike Fox put a lot of players on the diamond that evening, with nine pinch hitters and six pitchers toeing the rubber.

The next evening, Carolina hosted Davidson for their rescheduled match up. The Wildcats got on the board in the first inning, however the Tar Heels stormed back with a combined nine runs in the third and fourth. Busch drove in a pair to start the scoring for the Heels and Freeman added an RBI of his own. Sabato ended the game with three RBIs and Brandon Martorano had two. Once again, several Tar Heels took the mound. Connor Ollio struck out five of the 11 batters he faced, while Ben Casparius struck out four during his three scoreless innings.

These are the individual leaders for UNC:

Batting:

• Batting average: .333 - Dylan Enwiller
• Slugging percentage: .604 - Dylan Enwiller
• Home runs: 8 - Aaron Sabato (T-10th in ACC)
• RBI: 34 - Michael Busch
• Hits: 38 - Ike Freeman
• Runs: 39 - Michael Busch (2nd in ACC)
• On-base percentage: .480 - Ike Freeman (T-5th in ACC)

Pitching:

• ERA: 2.25 - Gianluca Dalatri (minimum 10 innings pitched)
• Strikeouts: 54 - Tyler Baum (7th in ACC)
• Innings pitched: 45.1 - Tyler Baum (8th in ACC)
• Wins: 6 - Tyler Baum (6-2) (2nd in ACC)
• Saves: 3 - Austin Love (T-8th in ACC)

When the Tar Heels travel to South Bend, the UNC pitchers will face a slugger in Niko Kavadas. The sophomore third baseman for Notre Dame is tied for third in the ACC with 10 home runs on the year.

Another sophomore, Spencer Myers, leads the Irish with a .308 batting average, .409 on-base percentage, 36 hits, and 28 runs on the season.

On the mound, expect to see Tommy Sheehan, Cameron Brown, and Cameron Junker. Cameron Brown ranks sixth in the conference with 55 strikeouts, while Sheehan has earned five wins in 2019.