UNC Baseball: Midweek Recap and Weekend of 3/19

The North Carolina Tar Heels were flying high after a weekend sweep of Clemson, but fell once again to Liberty during a weeknight out of conference match up.

Carolina (10-6, 6-3 ACC) travel north this weekend for a series against Boston College.

Below is the schedule for the weekend:

Here is an update on UNC in the national polls:

• D1Baseball.com: n/a
• Baseball America: 14
• National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association: 24
• Collegiate Baseball Newspaper: 17
• USA TODAY Coaches Poll: n/a

The Tar Heels faced off against Liberty on Tuesday for their second and final meeting of the regular season.

In the first inning, center fielder Justice Thompson made a spectacular play to keep a three-run home run off the board:

Yet, the Tar Heels were down 4-0 to the Flames after just two innings.

UNC climbed back into the ballgame with a sac fly by Angel Zarate in the third, and a solo shot by Danny Serretti and a RBI double by Tyler Causey in the fourth.

Liberty scored the eventual winning run in the fifth, as Carolina only added a run in the eighth.

Despite outhitting the Flames 10-7, the Tar Heels dropped the game 8-4.

The Tar Heels travel to Massachusetts this weekend to take on Boston College (9-5, 2-4 ACC).

The Eagles took their opening ACC series at Duke 2-1, but were swept last weekend at Louisville. This weekend’s series is the first home ACC matchup for BC.

Junior center fielder Sal Frelick and sophomore third baseman Luke Gold lead the way for Boston College.

Frelick leads the Eagles, and ranks ninth in the ACC, with a .409 batting average.

Gold is tied for the ACC lead in RBIs with 19, and ranks second in the league with five home runs.

On the mound, relief pitcher and sometimes closer Joey Walsh has appeared in 17.1 innings this season for the Eagles and has recorded a league-leading three saves. His 3.12 ERA ranks ninth in the ACC.

With four straight home runs last week, Clemente Inclan is the reigning ACC Player of the Week. Against Liberty and Clemson, the redshire junior hit .364 with eight RBIs and plated six runs in four games.

These are the individual leaders for UNC through four games:

Batting:

• Batting average: .397 - Justice Thompson
• Slugging percentage: .672 - Justice Thompson
• Home runs: 5 - Caleb Roberts (T-2nd ACC)
• RBI: 15 - Caleb Roberts (T-6th ACC)
• Hits: 23 - Justice Thompson (T-5th ACC)
• Runs: 14 - Justice Thompson (T-8th ACC)
• On-base percentage: .485 - Justice Thompson

Pitching:

• ERA: 1.80 - Caden O’Brien (minimum 10 innings pitched)
• Strikeouts: 29 - Austin Love (5th ACC)
• Innings pitched: 25.0 - Austin Love (1st ACC)
• Wins: 3 - Austin Love (T-1st ACC)
• Saves: 2 - Nik Pry, Connor Ollio, Caden O’Brien (T-2nd ACC)