The Diamond Heels seem to have found a formula for their non-conference series scheduling. This season and last, they have opened the season against a decent Power Four-level team, played their annual series against ECU, and then hosted a mid-major from the northeastern part of the country. Last year, that mid-major was Stony Brook of the CAA, a decent conference that hosts some strong programs and last year gave us a genuinely excellent Northeastern team (Northeastern did also just beat LSU in a midweek
matchup). That team gave the Heels a couple of decent battles and also led to them scouting Erik Paulsen, who’s now the Tar Heel first baseman and home runs leader on this young season. This year, it was the Le Moyne Dolphins of the NEC, which doesn’t quite have the same pedigree — and even within that conference, Le Moyne hasn’t been much of a contender for the few years it’s been a D-1 program. It didn’t seem like this series had much chance to be competitive and that the best case would be that the Heels could find some positive energy going into an ACC-opening series against Virginia.
That’s pretty much what happened, as the #8 Tar Heels won all three games by run-rule in 7 innings, marking the first time since the run rule went into effect that they’ve won all three games of a series in that fashion. Wins of 16-3, 12-2, and 20-1 meant that this series also set a UNC record for runs scored in a three-game series (since at least 1990, when the three-game series became the norm) with 48. Their streak of 4 games won by run-rule was then broken with Tuesday’s midweek matchup against Elon (funnily enough, of the aforementioned CAA), but they still took a fairly comfortable 5-1 victory.
UNC 16/12/20, Le Moyne 3/2/1
Because all three games were blowouts and followed fairly similar scripts, I’ll just recap them all in one section. The Dolphins’ hitters were surprisingly prepared for UNC’s starting pitchers and particularly for their fastballs. While Jason DeCaro, Ryan Lynch, and Folger Boaz all went at least 5 innings, they all gave up more hits than you’d expect for an elite staff against a team that’s been pretty hapless all year. DeCaro was especially susceptible, giving up a career-high 9 hits that led to all 3 runs (2 earned) for the Dolphins. Most of those hits were on pretty weak contact and just one went for extra bases, and combined with DeCaro’s 0 free passes given, the damage was pretty well limited — and even more so given that his offense gave him immediate run support with 5 runs in the first inning and 2 more in the second. Lynch and Boaz surrendered 5 hits each, also mostly on pretty soft contact that they were able to control with just an earned run apiece to their names, and Lynch had the longest wait for that kind of run support — while the Heels opened Sunday’s game with a 9-spot in the first inning, they waited until the 4th on Saturday to pour it on with a 7-piece. Jake Cakovic and Riley Leatherman tossed hitless innings in relief on Friday as they saw their first action in Tar Heel blue, as did Tom Chmielewski and Kyle Percival on Sunday. Matthew Matthijs closed out Saturday’s game giving up a harmless solo home run.
Offensively, as you could guess given the 48 runs scored in 18 innings, there were several standouts. Jake Schaffner continued his unbelievable season, going 6/8 with a home run and 4 RBI. He left Sunday’s game early after suffering an injury while making a defensive play, and while he didn’t play in UNC’s midweek, that game’s commentary suggested that he’ll be back in action this weekend. Paulsen went 6/10 over the weekend with 2 doubles, a homer, and 6 RBI. Cooper Nicholson and Colin Hynek had 8 RBI apiece, with Nicholson starting to tap into his power potential with 2 dingers. And, not to let the regular rotation players get all the shine, freshman Jadyn Nunez got into the action late in Sunday’s game and blasted a grand slam just over the left-field fence for his first collegiate hit.
UNC 5, Elon 1
Schaffner’s injury forced some lineup changes in the infield for UNC. Gavin Gallaher moved from second to shortstop while freshman A.J. Terry took over second base. In the outfield, Nunez took the field in right while Carter French manned left. After starting the season out of the lineup, French appears to have re-entered it for good thanks to his defensive consistency and a louder bat — coach Scott Forbes mentioned on a podcast that after never topping an exit velocity of 96 MPH last year, he’s already hit 102 this season, and that lines up with what my eyes have seen so far this season — French also recorded his first career extra-base knock over the weekend.
Freshman Caden Glauber started the game, but was more of an opener than a starter — Forbes mentioned wanting him ready for potential relief innings on Friday, so he went back to the dugout after throwing 2 scoreless innings in which he walked 2, allowed 2 hits, and struck out 3 on 39 total pitches — a decent outing, but not the best we’ve seen from him this year. Walker McDuffie followed him with 3 scoreless, looking more like the McDuffie we saw last year, with better fastball command and the slider working both as a swing-and-miss and an in-zone freeze pitch. He punched out 3 while allowing a hit and 2 walks. Another freshman, Jackson Rose, came in and kept the Phoenix off the board for 2 more innings, and Chmielewski — who’s looking much more reliable than he did in limited appearances last year — tossed another scoreless frame. With a five-run cushion, Matthijs allowed a couple of hits that gave Elon a run to break the shutout, but recorded a strikeout on the next batter to end the game.
Offensively, the Tar Heel bats were quieter than they had been over the weekend, going just 5/26 with 4 walks and 2 HBPs. Nicholson was the offensive standout, going 2/3 with a double and a 2-RBI single, while French also knocked in 2 with a sac fly and an RBI groundout. Owen Hull drove in UNC’s first run with a groundout to first, continuing his trend of being productive without recording hits, while Gavin Gallaher’s cold streak continued with an 0/4 day.
I’ll have a preview of the Virginia series, including the UNC stats leaders, tomorrow.
