UNC Baseball: Midweek recap and weekend of 4/30

With a series win last weekend over Miami, the North Carolina Tar Heels (20-18, 14-13 ACC) are jockeying for position in a five-way race for the Coastal Division lead.

However, since clinching the series win against Miami with a doubleheader victory, Carolina has dropped two straight. This means that UNC needs to turn it around quick with a weekend series against one of the top teams in the league.

It was a pitchers’ duel on Tuesday night in UNC’s rescheduled game against a ranked UNC Charlotte club.

The two teams went scoreless through nine innings of play. Carolina pitched by committee that evening, with five pitchers making appearances for UNC. No pitcher had more than 3.1 innings of work.

The Tar Heels struggled to get any runs across the plate, including a sixth inning in which UNC had the bases loaded with just one out.

In the top of the 10th, Charlotte got three on through a walk, single, and a bunt. The next batter drove in all three base runners with a triple. A sac fly added a fourth run for the 49ers. Carolina tried to rally in the 10th, but fell short 4-1.

The Tar Heels travel north to take on Notre Dame (21-8, 18-8 ACC) this weekend. The Fighting Irish are ranked in all the major polls, and is the only ACC team that has not lost a conference series this season.

While team batting is close to UNC, Notre Dame’s strength is on the mound and in the field. The Irish are ranked third in the conference in team pitching, and second in team fielding.

Tanner Kohlhepp (5-1) and John Bertrand (4-1) are leading the way on the mound for Notre Dame. Bertrand has 52 innings pitched this season and Kohlhepp has 36 innings pitched. This pair ranks in the top ten for ERA and opposing batting average in the ACC.

At the plate, senior Niko Kavadas is tied for second in the nation and ACC with 15 home runs. He ranks in the top ten in the conference in slugging percentage, on-base percentage, RBIs, and walks.

Junior Carter Putz leads ND and ranks ninth in the ACC with a .345 batting average.

Below are the individual leaders for UNC:

Batting:

• Batting average: .352 - Justice Thompson (6th ACC)
• Slugging percentage: .544 - Caleb Roberts
• Home runs: 9 - Caleb Roberts (T-8th ACC)
• RBI: 28 - Caleb Roberts
• Hits: 51 - Justice Thompson (4th ACC)
• Runs: 30 - Justice Thompson
• On-base percentage: .431 - Caleb Roberts

Pitching:

• ERA: 0.96 - Gage Gillian (minimum 10 innings pitched)
• Strikeouts: 74 - Austin Love (T-4th ACC)
• Innings pitched: 61.2 - Austin Love (1st ACC)
• Wins: 5 - Austin Love (T-2nd ACC)
• Saves: 3 - Nik Pry (T-9th ACC)