UNC Baseball: Weekend of 3/10 Recap

The North Carolina Tar Heels (12-5, 1-2) dropped their ACC opening series last weekend in Chapel Hill against Virginia.

Now, Carolina looks ahead to Charlotte and High Point before traveling to Pittsburgh for their first road weekend series of the season.

After two innings in the opener Friday, UNC was in a hole in which they could not climb out.

Virginia scored a run in the first and followed up with a two-run double and a three-run home run in the second to spring out to the 6-0 lead.

Starter Max Carlson was ran off after just 1.2 innings.

Jackson Van De Brake drove in all three of Carolina’s runs on Friday. He hit a two-run homer in the second and drove in a run in the seventh.

The bullpen’s efforts were mostly wasted in the 7-3 loss. Will Sandy allowed four hits and one run while striking out seven.

Kevin Eaise, the Penn transfer, went 3.1 innings without allowing a hit while striking out nine batters.

In the first game of the doubleheader Saturday, Carolina jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Van De Brake and Tomas Frick each had RBI doubles, while Alberto Osuna had a base hit to score Frick.

The next three innings went scoreless. In the top of the fourth with bases loaded and two outs, Virginia grounded out to keep it as a 3-0 UNC lead.

Unable to capitalize in the fourth, the wheels came off for Carolina. UVA tied the game with two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth.

After starter Connor Bovair was replaced, the Cavaliers continued to tack on runs with three in the seventh and two in the eighth.

The final run of the game came off a Casey Cook sac fly. The Tar Heels dropped the game 8-4.

The series’ last game was scoreless through four and a half innings. Cook kept it that way with a spectacular catch in the top of the fifth to end the inning and steal a home run:

Vance Honeycutt gave UNC the lead in the bottom half of the fifth on a RBI single, while Mac Horvath did the same for the 2-0 lead.

Frick scored on a fielder’s choice in the sixth, then Horvath hit a two-run shot in the seventh.

Johnny Castagnozzi finished off the scoring with a solo shot in the eighth.

Jake Knapp and Matt Poston were the keys to the 6-0 victory. The two rightys split the game and combined for a five-hit shutout.

Below is the upcoming schedule for Carolina:

UNCC is 6-9 on the season and split two games with Old Dominion over the weekend.

Sophomore Cam Fisher is leading the 49ers with a .358 batting average, nine home runs, and 17 RBIs.

HPU is also 6-9 this year and is coming off a weekend series loss at Louisiana.

Blake Sutton leads the Panthers with eight home runs, 18 RBIs, and a .809 slugging percentage.