We’re now fully into May, which means we’re getting into crunch time of the college baseball season. In the coming weeks, the ACC and then NCAA tournaments will begin, and the Diamond Heels will begin their quest to bring home a national championship.
However, we still have a bit of the regular season left to go, and that included this past weekend, where UNC swept Pitt in Chapel Hill to keep the wins coming.
Friday: UNC 4, Pitt 1 (box score)
Five shutout innings from starting pitcher Jason DeCaro allowed
Carolina to open up a lead they never lost in the series opener.
After a scoreless top of the first, Gavin Gallaher got UNC’s day going at the plate by hitting a solo homer in the bottom of the inning. Macon Winslow and Cooper Nicholson followed that with solo homers of their own in the second and fourth innings, giving DeCaro a lead to work with.
UNC’s starter ended up getting through five innings without allowing a run. He gave up just four hits and a walk, while he struck out seven Pitt batters. Carolina went to Walker McDuffie after that, but the star reliever had a rare bad outing, walking three and allowing a run to score. Caden Glauber had to come in for him and finish off the last 3.2 innings.
Glauber did that without issue and Winslow picked up another RBI late on to help seal the win.
Saturday: UNC 12, Pitt 2 – 8 innings (box score)
UNC’s offense were the stars of the second game of the weekend, as they mercy rule’d the Panthers to clinch the series.
Pitt actually opened the scoring when Mason Ligenza homered off Ryan Lynch in the third inning. However, Carolina immediately answered with three runs in the third, led by RBI hits from Jake Schaffner and Owen Hull. The offense then kept pouring it on from there.
Schaffner drove home another run in the fifth before the Panthers then picked up their second run of the day. After that though, UNC then scored eight more unanswered runs, with a Gallaher sacrifice fly in the eighth inning taking the lead to 10 runs to end the proceedings.
Schaffner finished the day by going 2-for-3 with three walks, but he was hardly the only star. Nicholson drove home three runs on the day, with he and Tyler Howe both hitting home runs as Carolina mostly cruised. Meanwhile on the mound, Lynch went six innings, allowing just those two runs.
Sunday: UNC 7, Pitt 3 (box score)
The Diamond Heels finished off the sweep on Sunday by pulling away late from the Panthers for a win on Senior Day.
UNC opened the scoring in the bottom of the first when Winslow scored two runs with an RBI single. However, Pitt answered with a run in each of the second and fourth innings, tying the game up. The game remained knotted up for a while, but Carolina’s offense eventually got back going.
In the sixth, the Heels took the lead back when Colin Hynek scored a run with a single, which was later followed by a bases loaded walk to Gallaher. Hynek then brought home two more runs in the seventh with another RBI single, and Erik Paulsen drove another in during the eighth.
The Panthers clawed one run back, but UNC’s bullpen held up otherwise. Glauber again had a big day, throwing 3.1 scoreless frames.
This week, UNC will finish up their regular season on the road. They’ll play UNC Wilmington in a mid-week game before heading to Raleigh to take on NC State in the final series of the regular season.
