UNC Baseball: Midweek Recap and Weekend of 2/25

The North Carolina Tar Heels are undefeated heading into an important series versus an ECU team that was highly ranked in the preseason.

Carolina (4-0, 0-0 ACC) will host the first two games of the weekend series against the Pirates before traveling to Greenville for the Sunday finale.

Below is the schedule for the weekend:

Here is an update on UNC in the national polls:

• D1Baseball.com: n/a
• Baseball America: n/a
• National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association: n/a
• Collegiate Baseball Newspaper: 26
• USA TODAY Coaches Poll: n/a

The Tar Heels faced off against Elon on Tuesday at Boshamer Stadium.

The Phoenix scored one run in the third before sophomore first baseman Johnny Castagozzi took over.

In the bottom of the fourth, Castagozzi was inches away from a three-run home run. His double off the top of the wall scored Alberto Osuna and Vance Honeycutt to give UNC the lead.

Sophomore third baseman Mac Horvath drove in a run in the seventh to extend the Carolina lead.

Castagozzi capped off the evening with a two-run home run in the eighth for the final margin of a 5-1 Carolina victory.

In his second game as a Tar Heel, Connor Bovair struck out seven of 11. The righty transfer from Siena earned his first win at Carolina.

Will Sandy made his first start of the season, and struck out three in four innings of work.

In the preseason polls, East Carolina was ranked as a top-20 team in all the major polls. The Pirates were ranked as high as no. 8 in Collegiate Baseball’s preseason poll.

However, an opening weekend sweep by Bryant put the Pirates in an early season hole. The second game ended in controversy as an ECU walk-off homer was nullified by an apparent timeout by the first base umpire.

A win over Campbell this week finally got them in the win column.

Junior Lane Hoover is the leading East Carolina batter through four games. He leads the team in batting average, hits, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage.

The indefinite suspension of sophomore pitcher Carson Whisenhunt, a potential first round draft pick, is hurting ECU.

It is important to note that the games Friday and Saturday are in Chapel Hill, while Sunday’s game will take place in Greenville. The first two games will air on ACCNX, while Sunday’s game is on ESPN+.

These are the individual leaders for UNC through four games:

Batting:

• Batting average: .600 - Johnny Castagozzi
• Slugging percentage: 1.000 - Johnny Castagozzi
• Home runs: 3 - Vance Honeycutt
• RBI: 6 - Vance Honeycutt
• Hits: 9 - Johnny Castagozzi
• Runs: 8 - Johnny Castagozzi and Vance Honeycutt
• On-base percentage: .647 - Johnny Castagozzi

Pitching:

• ERA: 0.00 - Several!
• Strikeouts: 8 - Connor Bovair
• Innings pitched: 6.0 - Brandon Schaeffer
• Wins: 1 - Connor Bovair, Brandon Schaeffer, Davis Palermo, Shawn Rapp
• Saves: n/a