UNC Baseball: Midweek recap and weekend of 4/2

The North Carolina Tar Heels (13-10, 8-7 ACC) had an opportunity to keep pace at the top of the Coastal Division last weekend against an underperforming NC State team. Instead, Carolina was swept by the Wolfpack and blew a lead to ECU on Tuesday night to put them on a four-game losing skid.

Below is the schedule for this weekend against Florida State:

Here is an update on UNC in the national polls:

• D1Baseball.com: n/a
• Baseball America: 21
• National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association: 29
• Collegiate Baseball Newspaper: 20
• USA TODAY Coaches Poll: n/a

Carolina dropped out of the USA TODAY Coaches and D1Baseball.com polls. The team fell 10 spots in the Baseball America poll, three spots in Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll, and two ranks in the NCBWA poll.

The Tar Heels looked to rebound versus East Carolina after their disappointing home series against NC State. In Greenville, UNC hopped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first thanks to a Danny Serretti two-run home run and Johnny Castagnozzi had a two RBI double.

The Pirates cut that lead in half in the bottom of the first. Carolina added two more in the second off a two-run double by Caleb Roberts. Once again, ECU responded in the bottom half of the inning, and added to more in the fourth to tie the game at six.

In the sixth and seventh, the Tar Heels brought out the big bats. Roberts and Angel Zarate homered in the sixth, while Tyler Causey had a homer in the seventh. UNC held a 10-6 lead deep into the game, but ECU stormed back with four runs in the eighth and a walk off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to claim the 11-10 victory.

Florida State (13-8, 8-7 ACC) head into the week off a win against Mercer on Wednesday. In their previous conference weekend series versus Wake Forest, the Seminoles lost the series 1-2. FSU leads the ACC in team ERA. Parker Messick is the ace for the Seminoles, as he leads the conference with 51 strikeouts and is keeping batters to just a .185 average.

UNC will face another top slugger in sophomore Matheu Nelson. He is tied for the league lead with 10 home runs, and ranks in the top 10 in slugging percentage, on-base percentage, RBIs, and run scored.

Tyler Martin leads FSU in batting average, and ranks first in the ACC in on-base percentage and runs scored.

Below are the individual leaders for UNC:

Batting:

• Batting average: .341 - Justice Thompson
• Slugging percentage: .605 - Caleb Roberts
• Home runs: 6 - Caleb Roberts (T-7th ACC)
• RBI: 19 - Danny Serretti (T-10th ACC)
• Hits: 30 - Justice Thompson (T-7th ACC)
• Runs: 24 - Justice Thompson (T-4th ACC)
• On-base percentage: .448 - Justice Thompson

Pitching:

• ERA: 2.45 - Joey Lancellotti (minimum 10 innings pitched)
• Strikeouts: 40 - Austin Love (7th ACC)
• Innings pitched: 36.0 - Austin Love (4th ACC)
• Wins: 4 - Austin Love (T-1st ACC)
• Saves: 2 - Nik Pry, Connor Ollio, Caden O’Brien