UNC Baseball: Midweek recap and weekend of 5/20

After a weekend sweep of a top ten Louisville team and a midweek win over UNCW, the North Carolina Tar Heels (25-22, 17-16 ACC) are playing some good baseball at the right time.

UNC will close out the regular season on the road against Georgia Tech. Here is the schedule for the final three games before the ACC Tournament:

In the home finale on Tuesday evening, the Tar Heels got off to a fast start versus the Seahawks. Carolina got on the board in the first with a Justice Thompson sac fly that scored Angel Zarate after his leadoff triple.

In the second, UNC opened the game wide open with eight runs. Danny Serretti hit a two-run home run to start the scoring in the inning. After four straight walks and two scores off wild pitches, Mac Horvath hit a three-run shot to put the Tar Heels ahead 9-0.

Carolina scored a couple more runs off wild pitches in the middle innings. UNCW had a five-run seventh inning to close the gap to 11-8, and another run in the eighth was the closest the Seahawks would get to the Tar Heels.

A three-run eighth for UNC would prove to be the final margin for the ballgame, with the Tar Heels taking the game 14-9.

Connor Ollio earned the victory for Carolina, with Nik Pry adding a save. Three other pitchers made appearances for UNC.

Georgia Tech (26-20, 19-14 ACC) is atop the Coastal Division standings heading into the final weekend of the regular season. With teams jockeying for position before the ACC Tournament in Charlotte next week, the Tar Heels have an outside chance at the top spot in the Coastal.

The Yellow Jackets have series wins over Clemson, Virginia Tech, Duke, Wake Forest, Louisville, and NC State, while they have dropped matchups against Pitt, Virginia, Notre Dame, Florida State, and Miami.

GT ranks fourth in the ACC in team batting, but is 12th in team pitching.

Kevin Parada leads Georgia Tech with a .322 batting average, while Justyn-Henry Malloy leads the Jackets in home runs, RBIs, runs, and slugging percentage. Tres Gonzalez is sixth in the ACC with a .452 on-base percentage.

Junior lefty Brant Hurter leads the way for GT on the mound. He leads the Yellow Jackets in many statistical categories, including wins, innings pitched, strikeouts, ERA, and opposing batting average.

Luke Bartnicki has registered six saves on the season, and has appeared in a team-high 22 games.

Below are the individual leaders for UNC:

Batting:

• Batting average: .324 - Justice Thompson
• Slugging percentage: .497 - Angel Zarate
• Home runs: 9 - Caleb Roberts
• RBI: 33 - Danny Serretti
• Hits: 57 - Justice Thompson
• Runs: 35 - Caleb Roberts
• On-base percentage: .441 - Caleb Roberts (10th ACC)

Pitching:

• ERA: 1.31 - Gage Gillian (minimum 10 innings pitched)
• Strikeouts: 96 - Austin Love (5th ACC)
• Innings pitched: 80.2 - Austin Love (1st ACC)
• Wins: 7 - Austin Love (T-1st ACC)
• Saves: 4 - Nik Pry (T-8th ACC)