UNC Baseball grounds Louisville in weekend sweep

The UNC Baseball team (24-22, 17-16 ACC) swept Louisville behind a potent offense and incredible pitching that propelled them in the three games.

Game One: UNC 5, Louisville 1

The Tar Heels cruised to a 5-1 win behind a complete game from Austin Love on the mound and Mac Horvath leading the offense on Friday.

From the beginning, Love cut into the Cardinals lineup as he faced the minimum through two innings.

Dallas Tesser walked to start the bottom of the second, Horvath followed it up with a two-run bomb to give the Tar Heels a 2-0 lead.

In the top of the third, Louisville loaded the bases with two outs, but Love punched out the next batter to quell the rally. Angel Zarate led off the bottom of the inning with a homer to give UNC a 3-0 lead.

Through four innings, Love surrendered two walks and one hit as he stymied the Cardinals. For UNC, Horvath came up with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the fifth before he singled in a pair to push the lead to 5-0.

In the top of the sixth, Love gave up a leadoff homer that cut into the deficit 5-1, but he got the next three batters.

With a leadoff single in the top of the eighth, the Cardinals managed their fourth hit, but the next batter hit into a line drive double play that quickly erased their momentum.

UNC cruised through the next inning as they took game one of the series 5-1 Friday evening.

Stop if this was written in a previous recap, but Austin Love pitched another solid game. This is the fifth time he’s pitched seven-plus innings on the season. His final stats— 9.0 innings, six hits allowed, two walks allowed, one earned run and nine K’s.

Game Two: UNC 5, Louisville 0

North Carolina triumphed over Louisville Saturday afternoon behind a 2-for-4 day with three RBI from Brett Centracchio in the 5-0 win.

The Tar Heels put runners in scoring position in the bottom of the second, and Centracchio singled home the first run to give UNC the lead in the bottom of the second. North Carolina extended this lead in the bottom of the third as they added two runs that made it 3-0.

Centracchio stepped in the box with one out and one on in the bottom of the sixth— he belted a ball over the right field wall that swelled the lead to 5-0.

From there the pitching effort from the bullpen kept Louisville off the scoreboard and eventually won the game for UNC 5-0 to win the series.

Game Three: UNC 10, Louisville 5

The Tar Heels trounced the Cardinals 10-5 for a weekend series sweep—the third of the season for UNC.

Shawn Rapp pitched for UNC where he worked around two singles in the top of the first to keep the Cardinals off the board.

North Carolina established a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first as a bases-loaded walk, an RBI from Horvath and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Danny Serretti gave UNC the advantage.

In the bottom of the second, a leadoff double from  Centracchio and an error gave UNC runners at the corners. Justice Thompson singled in a run that made it 4-0, before UNC scored two more that swelled the lead to 6-0.

Rapp faltered in the top of the fourth as Louisville hit a one-out single, and  advanced on a wild pitch that gave the Cardinals a run-scoring opportunity. While the next batter struck out, the following batter doubled to cut into the UNC lead 6-1.

Nik Pry started the top of the fifth on the bump for UNC and immediately ran into trouble with three singles to start the inning. But Pry struck out the fourth batter. While Louisville hit a sacrifice fly that made it 6-2, Pry managed to stop the momentum and end the inning.

With a one-out double from Centracchio, UNC later pushed across another run with a two-out single from Zarate to give the Tar Heels a modest 7-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth. But Louisville hit a two-run homer that made it a close 7-4 ballgame.

UNC later added three runs in the bottom of the eighth  that ballooned the lead to 10-4. In the top of the ninth, Louisville scored another run to shrink the lead to 10-5, but it was not enough as UNC swept the Cardinals.

Head Coach Scott Forbes said the team came into Friday with confidence that propelled them throughout the series, and this is the perfect time to have momentum building.

“I also told them before the series starts that the most dangerous teams in my coaching career are the ones this time of year that are playing together,” Forbes said. “But also they know they can’t take a day off, and they’ve got some talent and all of a sudden they get hot— those teams can get really dangerous and that’s what we hope to be.”

With a Tuesday game against UNC Wilmington and a the final weekend series of the regular season against a tough Georgia Tech team, this confidence and momentum will be tested soon.

For coverage of these next games and all things UNC sports run over to Keeping It Heel.