UNC Baseball wins first ACC series of season against Pittsburgh

It was a great weekend for the UNC baseball program, as they won their first conference series of the 2022 season.

After their first 13 contests of the season were non-conference affairs, the UNC baseball program started off their ACC slate in grand fashion.

The Tar Heels, currently ranked No. 15 according to D1baseball.com, took care of business on their home field, sweeping Pittsburgh to improve to 14-2 on the early season.

To start the series, the North Carolina offense got off to a slow start, as they did not register a hit until the fourth inning. However, the bats quickly came alive, as they strung together six runs on 10 hits over the final 4 2/3 innings en route to a 7-4 series-opening victory.

Junior transfer Brandon Schaeffer made his ACC debut on the mound, as he allowed three earned (four total) runs on 10 hits over 5 1/3 innings of work. Kyle Mott, who is quickly becoming a valuable piece to the Tar Heels bullpen, picked up the victory after throwing 2.2 scoreless innings.

Offensively, Angel Zarate led the Tar Heels with three hits in four at-bats. North Carolina also received multi-hit games from Johnny Castagnozzi and Danny Serretti, while freshman Vance Honeycutt hit his sixth homer of the season in the win.

Similar to the first game, the Tar Heels’ offense took some time to heat up.

However, some clutch hitting helped North Carolina not only secure another ACC victory but helped them clinch their first conference series of the year.

Trailing 3-0 in the sixth inning, Mac Horvath tied the game with a three-run homer, his second so far in the 2022 campaign.

The offenses on both sides would go stale until the bottom of the ninth inning, as the Tar Heels are starting a new trend of being accustomed to walk-off victories.

Castagnozzi was the hero in this one, as he blasted an opposite-field homer to right-center field to end another game in dramatic fashion. This solo homer gave the UNC baseball program their third walk-off victory in a span of nine days.

In the final game of the series, the Tar Heels were powered by a five-run eighth inning that guided them to a 9-2 victory.

Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth, Castagnozzi came up clutch again, as his solo homer tied the game up. After adding two more runs in the seventh inning, the Tar Heels exploded for a five-run inning in the bottom half of the eighth to put the game out of reach.

In his first weekend start for the Tar Heels, sophomore transfer Connor Bovair allowed just two runs over five innings of work. The duo of Mott and Shawn Rapp combined to throw four shutout innings to close out the series.

This marks the first time that the UNC baseball program has swept their opening ACC series since 2016, and ties their best start to the season since 2013.

The UNC baseball program will be back in action on Tuesday afternoon in Chapel Hill, as they’ll host VMI for a one-game set. North Carolina is scheduled to play back-to-back non-conference games, as they’ll also host Richmond on Wednesday at Boshamer Stadium.

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