UNC Baseball: Midweek Recap and Weekend of 5/13

After a big series win over NC State last week, the North Carolina Tar Heels (29-18, 10-14 ACC) went two for two during their matchups against Gardner-Webb and Charleston Southern during the week.

This weekend, Carolina hosts Wake Forest in the penultimate ACC weekend series of the regular season.

On Tuesday night, UNC got out to a quick lead against Gardner-Webb. On the first pitch to the Tar Heels in the bottom of the first, Angel Zarate hit a solo home run. Alberto Osuna drove in Vance Honeycutt to tally another run in the first.

Honeycutt smacked another homer for Carolina in the third.

With a swing of the bat in the fourth, Mac Horvath’s grand slam was the difference-maker in the final score. That was Horvath’s second career grand slam. Honeycutt’s triple added another run to extend UNC’s lead to eight.

GWU got three runs back in the fifth, but Carolina responded in the bottom half of the inning with a Zarate two-RBI double.

Osuna scored Honeycutt on a sac fly in the sixth, and UNC’s 12th and final run came from Zarate scoring a wild pitch.

Honeycutt finished with three stolen bases and his first career four-hit game.

Five Tar Heels appeared on the mount, including freshman Alden Segui’s first collegiate appearance.

On Wednesday, Carolina started fast versus Georgia Southern and ended up with enough runs in the first inning. Danny Serretti, Hunter Stokely, and Tomas Frick each tallied a RBI in the first.

After some small ball in the first, UNC brought out the big bats in the second. Mac Horvath started with a two-run home run, then Alberto Osuna tallied a three-run home run.

Georgia Southern notched their only run of the game in the top of the third. In the bottom of the inning, Connor Carter scored on a fielder’s choice. With three on, Vance Honeycutt hit a three-run home run. Later in the inning, Mikey Madej scored on a wild pitch for the final run of the game.

Four Tar Heels took the mound against Georgia Southern. Will Sandy pitched four innings, facing 11 batters, and allowing no hits.

The worst performance from UNC on Wednesday came from the concessions. Our sources confirm that the concessions stands ran out of hotdogs after the second inning. Not a good look for Dollar Dog Night.

Wake Forest (33-14-1, 11-12-1 ACC) is riding high after an impressive series last weekend against top 10 Louisville.

The Demon Deacons took the opening game of the series 14-3 and ended the series in an ultra-rare baseball tie.

WF leads the ACC in team batting average, runs scored, home runs, RBIs, and on-base percentage.

Four Demon Deacons are in the top ten of league leaders in on-base percentage.

Redshirt junior Brendan Tinsman is WF’s top slugger, and he ranks fourth in the ACC with 18 home runs, eighth in slugging percentage (.711) and tied for ninth in RBIs (54).

Redshirt sophomore Pierce Bennett ranks sixth in the ACC with a .380 batting average.

Sophomore righty Rhett Lowder leads the conference with nine wins and has struck out the third most batters (82) in the ACC this season.

Below are the individual leaders for UNC:

Batting (minimum 2 PA/G and 75% of games played):

• Batting average: .356 - Angel Zarate
• Slugging percentage: .594 - Vance Honeycutt
• Home runs: 15 - Alberto Osuna (T-7th in ACC)
• RBI: 42 - Alberto Osuna
• Hits: 69 - Angel Zarate (T-6th in ACC)
• Runs: 47 - Vance Honeycutt
• On-base percentage: .434 - Danny Serretti
• Stolen bases: 26 - Vance Honeycutt (2nd in ACC)

Pitching (minimum 1 IP/G):

• ERA: 1.08 - Caleb Cozart
• Strikeouts: 60 - Max Carlson
• Innings pitched: 59.2 - Brandon Schaeffer
• Wins: 6 - Kyle Mott (T-9th in ACC)
• Saves: 4 - Caden O’Brien (T-7th in ACC)