UNC Baseball: Midweek recap and weekend of 3/23

After two games in Pittsburgh were canceled due to rain, the North Carolina Tar Heels (16-5, 2-2) returned home for a midweek matchup against NC A&T.

A hard-fought victory over the Aggies brings the Tar Heels to a home series against the Blue Devils.

Here is the schedule for the series against Duke:

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For the most part, UNC’s 10-run win over Pitt helped them in the polls. Carolina moved up in four major polls while losing one spot in the Baseball America ranking.

Here are the current rankings for UNC:

D1Baseball.com: 15

Baseball America: 19

NCBWA: 13

Collegiate Baseball: 21

USA Today Coaches Poll: 16

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Carolina hosted NC A&T on Tuesday, and the good boys and girls were at the stadium for Bark at the Bosh.

The Aggies started the scoring with a two-run double in the first.

Vance Honeycutt started the scoring for the Heels in the bottom of the first with an oppo solo shot:

Later in the inning, Alberto Osuna hit a two-run home run to give Carolina the 3-2 lead.

After a scoreless second, Hunter Stokely tallied another two-run home run for UNC to extend the lead to 5-2.

A&T plated one in the fourth to cut the lead to 5-3.

After three scoreless innings, the Aggies got to within one with an RBI double in the eighth. With A&T threatening with the tying run on first and the leading run at the plate, sophomore Dalton Pence struck out the final batter of the inning on five pitches.

Stokely drove in the insurance marker in the eighth, and junior Matt Poston retired the side in order in the ninth to earn his first save.

Below are the highlights from the 6-4 win:

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Duke (14-7, 3-3) has won four of their five, including a 2-1 series win at Clemson last weekend.

The Blue Devils are third in the ACC in team ERA, but are under .300 in team batting average. However, Duke has plated 205 runners this season, which ranks second the conference.

Sophomore Alex Mooney leads Duke with a .386 batting average, and his 34 hits are tied for seventh in the ACC.

Junior Jay Beshears is tied for third in the league with 30 RBIs and ranks in the top ten for runs scored.

The Tar Heels will certainly face sophomore lefty Jonathan Santucci during the series. He leads all Duke pitchers with 21 innings pitched and is tied for third in the ACC with 41 strikeouts.

Freshman lefty James Tallon has an ERA of 0.96. He has three saves in seven appearances and has allowed just one hit in over nine innings of relief work this season.

Duke’s best win of the season was in late February when the Blue Devils beat a then-ranked no. 9 East Carolina 9-0.

The most impressive pitching performance of the season came against Appalachian State. Three Blue Devils combined for a one-hit shutout of the Mountaineers.

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Below are the individual leaders for UNC:

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

• Batting average: .386 - Tomas Frick
• Slugging percentage: .824 - Mac Horvath (5th in ACC)
• Home runs: 11 - Mac Horvath (2nd in ACC)
• RBI: 27 - Tomas Frick (7th in ACC)
• Hits: 32 - Tomas Frick (10th in ACC)
• Runs: 29 - Mac Horvath (T-6th in ACC)
• On-base percentage: .476 - Hunter Stokely
• Stolen bases: 13 - Vance Honeycutt (T-1st in ACC)

Pitching (minimum 1 IP/G):

• ERA: 2.05 - Connor Bovair (10th in ACC)
• Strikeouts: 27 - Max Carlson
• Innings pitched: 26.1 - Connor Bovair (10th in ACC)
• Wins: 2 - Connor Bovair
• Saves: n/a
• Opposing Batting Average: .210 - Connor Bovair