UNC Baseball: Series recap against Florida State
The UNC baseball team (14-12, 9-9 ACC) lost the weekend series against Florida State (15-9, 10-8 ACC). Despite the great pitching performances from the Tar Heels, they lost the last two games.
After the Tar Heels lost four straight, they needed a few wins to move up in the ACC standings, because they enter a tough part of their schedule ahead.
Game 1: UNC 4, Florida State 3
In game one Friday afternoon, North Carolina won 4-3 against Florida State behind an incredible pitching performance from sophomore Austin Love. Love dominated early with five strikeouts through the first two innings of work.
Florida State threatened in the bottom of the third with runners on first and second with two outs, but Love got a ground out to end the inning.
The Tar Heels scored in the top of the fifth behind a bunt from first-year Colby Wilkerson to give them the 1-0 lead. Love struck out two more in the bottom of the fifth, and collected another two K’s in the next half inning.
In the top of the seventh with the bases loaded and one out, junior Angel Zarate knocked in two runs to push the lead to 3-0 in favor of UNC. Love surrendered a three-run home run that tied the game, but rebounded to get three outs including his 10th strikeout.
UNC used three pitchers in the bottom of the eighth and kept the game tied heading into the top of the ninth. Sophomore Justice Thompson came up in the top of the ninth with runners on first and second with one out, and hit a single to give UNC the lead 4-3, which was the eventual final.
Love finished with 10 strikeouts three hits, two walks and three runs allowed, two earned, through 7.0 innings.
Game 2: Florida State 4, UNC 2
North Carolina fell 4-2 to Florida State Saturday afternoon in walk off fashion to tie the series at one. Despite a brilliant relief performance from senior Gage Gillian, the Tar Heels gave up a two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth.
In the bottom of the first, Florida State scored a couple on a two-run bomb with one out that gave them the 2-0 lead, but redshirt freshman Max Alba bounced back and struck out the next two.
Alba cruised in the bottom of the second, but in the bottom of the third surrendered a lead off double and a single to put runners on first and third with no outs. The next batter popped out. Gillian relieved Alba and got the next two outs to keep the Seminoles off the board.
UNC scored two in the top of the fourth as sophomore Danny Serretti lead off with a double before sophomore Caleb Roberts belted a two-run home run to tie the game at 2-2.
Gillian baffled the Seminoles en route to 4.2 innings pitched with seven strikeouts, no walks and two hits allowed. UNC used three pitchers to get through the bottom of the eighth inning, but kept the Seminoles from scoring. Despite runners on first and second with two outs, the Tar Heels didn’t score in the top of the ninth.
First-year Connor Ollio started the bottom of the ninth on the bump for UNC, and got the first batter to strike out. But the next batter singled, and then the two-run bomb lifted the Seminoles over UNC 4-2 to even the series.
The seven punch outs set a new career high in strikeouts for Gillian.
Game 3: Florida State 8, UNC 0
In the final game of the weekend series, UNC suffered a crushing defeat to Florida State 8-0 on Sunday afternoon.
Florida State rallied with two outs in the bottom of the first as a wild pitch gave the Seminoles their first run. A three-run homer soon pushed that lead to 4-0 for Florida State. Another wild pitch in the bottom of the second gave Florida State another run to extend the lead to 5-0. This was the second run scored on a wild pitch from UNC.
In the bottom of the of the fourth the Seminoles capitalized on two walks to score two runs and give themselves a 7-0 lead. Florida State capitalized again on two walks to score another run and make it 8-0 in their favor, which was the eventual final.
While UNC pitching struck out more batters than they walked in the previous two games, the Tar Heels faltered in the final game as they allowed 10 walks but only struck out nine. In the third game, UNC threw three wild pitches, more than they did in the previous two games combined.
With four straight weekend series against an ACC opponent, this is perhaps the most important stretch UNC faces as they look to move up in the ACC standings.
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The Tar Heels take on South Carolina Tuesday evening with first pitch scheduled for 7:00 p.m. For all things UNC baseball, look no further than Keeping It Heel!