UNC Baseball: Midweek recap and weekend of 4/13

The North Carolina Tar Heels (23-10, 8-5 ACC) face off against Miami starting Thursday night. This is a battle for second place in the Coastal Division and critical in keeping pace with Virginia.

After their 2-1 series win over Georgia Tech last weekend, the Tar Heels took their midweek game against Queens University of Charlotte.

Below is the schedule for the home series versus Miami:

Despite their loss to South Carolina last week, the series win over Georgia Tech gave Carolina a slight bump in the polls.

UNC moved up in three of the national polls while maintaining their ranking in two others.

• D1Baseball.com: 13
• Baseball America: 13
• NCBWA: 13
• Collegiate Baseball: 14
• USA Today Coaches Poll: 15

On Tuesday night in Boshamer, the Tar Heels started fast and ended up with enough runs for the victory in the first inning.

Carolina scored their first run on a bases-loaded walk. Tomas Frick drove in two on a double, and Hunter Stokley did the same during the next at-bat.

Patrick Alvarez drove in Stokley on a single to left field. Two batters later, Casey Cook drove in Alvarez on a ground out to second base.

After a scoreless second, Alvarez took one to left field for a three-run home run.

The Tar Heels had 11 pitchers appear against Queens. Cameron Padgett appeared for two innings, striking out three out of eight batters.

Middle relief remains an issue for the Heels. Queens scored six runs in the final four innings to make the game look more respectable than it was in the first half of the game.

Miami (20-12, 8-7 ACC) is hanging tough at third place in the Coastal Division, but faced a major setback last weekend. The Hurricanes were swept by Virginia, snapping a five-game win streak that came after being swept by Wake Forest.

Juniors Yohandy Morales and CJ Kayfus are two batters to watch for Miami. These two are team leaders for the Hurricanes in batting average, hits, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage.

Florida Gulf Coast transfer Ian Farrow leads Miami in slugging percentage and shares the team lead in home runs despite appearing in just 23 games.

Gage Ziehl, Karson Ligon, and Alejandro Rosario are the regular starters for the Hurricanes.

Closer Andrew Walters has a 1.17 ERA and has three saves in 11 appearances.

Below are the individual leaders for UNC:

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

• Batting average: .355 - Patrick Alvarez
• Slugging percentage: .685 - Mac Horvath (10th in ACC)
• Home runs: 13 - Mac Horvath (3rd in ACC)
• RBI: 38 - Tomas Frick (5th in ACC)
• Hits: 40 - Tomas Frick
• Runs: 39 - Mac Horvath (7th in ACC)
• On-base percentage: .490 - Jackson Van De Brake
• Stolen bases: 15 - Vance Honeycutt and Mac Horvath (T-2nd in ACC)

Pitching (minimum 1 IP/G):

• ERA: 3.25 - Connor Bovair
• Strikeouts: 46 - Max Carlson
• Innings pitched: 44.1 - Connor Bovair (7th in ACC)
• Wins: 4 - Connor Bovair
• Saves: 4 - Kevin Eaise (T-5th in ACC)
• Opposing Batting Average: .227 - Connor Bovair