UNC Baseball: Recap before an off weekend

If you’ve been anywhere near the UNC campus the last week or so, the unmistakable signs of the end of the semester are there: all the trees are back in full bloom and multiple folks are walking around in caps and gowns getting their photos taken at the Old Well, Arboretum, and Bell Tower before the actual ceremony. Another thing the end of the semester brings: final exams.

Those finals kicked off today and go on through next week. While other teams will be competing in their rescheduled postseasons, the Diamond Heels built this weekend as an off weekend. Luckily none of their ACC games required them to fill this weekend, and thus the Tar Heels will spend this Mother’s Day Weekend hunkered down in the books for the end of the semester.

The break is coming at a good time for the Tar Heels. Matt recounted last weekend’s sweep in South Bend, and the weary Tar Heels had to reschedule their game that was going to be played on Tuesday to Wednesday due to weather.

When they did take the diamond, it was against the Campbell Camels who traveled up from Buies Creek to take on the Tar Heels. The Tar Heels’ struggles at the plate continued for the first few innings, as they were only able to get one run on the Camels through four innings, and Campbell was able to score two runs on Gage Gillian, who came in on relief after two scoreless by Caden O’Brien.

Then in the fifth the Tar Heels were able to take the lead thanks to two walked in runs. Hey, when you’re struggling to win any games, you’ll take two walks with the bases loaded. The Tar Heels left them loaded, though, and Campbell was able to tie the score again thanks to a solo shot by Zach Neto off of Austin Love. Love was able to settle down, though, and ended up pitching the rest of the game.

It remained knotted at 3 until the bottom of the 8th inning when the dam broke open and the Tar Heels plated five. The onslaught included the first home run of the season for Brett Centracchio, but the rest came from the team scratching and clawing runs where they could. Love finished out the 9th to get the win, and finished with 4 IP, 7K’s, 1 ER, and no walks.

The win brought the Tar Heels to 21-21 on the season, and they have eight games left in their schedule to try and make a late season push to earn an NCAA bid.

Next game:

The Tar Heels come out of the Finals Break to host UNC-Greensboro at 7 PM Tuesday in Boshamer, before they welcome the Louisville Cardinals into town next weekend.

Individual Leaders:

Batting

• Batting average: .325 - Justice Thompson
• Slugging percentage: .520 - Caleb Roberts
• Home runs: 9 - Caleb Roberts
• RBI: 29 - Caleb Roberts & Danny Serretti
• Hits: 52 - Justice Thompson
• Runs: 30 - Justice Thompson & Caleb Roberts
• On-base percentage: .440 - Caleb Roberts

Pitching

• ERA: 1.29 - Gage Gillian (minimum 10 innings pitched)
• Strikeouts: 87 - Austin Love
• Innings pitched: 71.2 - Austin Love
• Wins: 6 - Austin Love
• Saves: 3 - Nik Pry