UNC Baseball: Offense on pace for record year

UNC Baseball has started the 2023 season strong offensively and could be looking at breaking several offensive records this season. 

Just over a third of the way through the 2023 season, and the UNC baseball team is on pace to break several offensive records this season. To date, the Tar Heels have played in 24 games, most recently wrapping up a three-game weekend series with rival Duke that they won 2-1.

Because not all teams are created equal, and some teams have earned the opportunity to play deeper into the postseason, and we don’t know how far this team will go yet, we will look at these records on a per-game average and see how they line up with some of the best offensive teams in Carolina history.

The one record that stands out the most that the Diamond Heels are on pace to break is the 2002 home run record. The 2002 Tar Heels hit 108 home runs in 63 games (an average of 1.71 home runs per game). This year’s 2023 team has hit 51 home runs in just 24 games! That’s an average of 2.13 home runs per game. In 2022, Carolina got close to the 2002 record hitting 101 home runs last season in 64 games.

The runs scored record is held by the 2013 College World Series team that scored 542 runs in 71 games (an average of 7.63 runs per game). That team benefited from their deep run into June and the College World Series to break the record. The 2002 team mentioned previously for the home run record holds second place at 541 runs scored in 63 games (8.58 runs per game). The current 2023 team has scored 213 runs in 24 games, which is certainly on pace if they are able to play deep enough into June at 8.88 runs per game.

There are three more offensive records the Tar Heels are on pace to break if they continue to average what they have through the first part of the season. They are RBIs, total bases, and slugging percentage. The RBI record is 497 (6.80 RBIs per game) set in 2007 by the Diamond Heels, a team that played in 73 games and went all the way to the National Championship game. This year’s team has 198 RBIs through 24 games, averaging 8.25 RBIs per game.

The total base record is 1,265 total bases set in 2002 (20.07 total bases per game) by a team that clearly set a lot of offensive records. This year’s Tar Heel team has 466 total bases through their 24 games averaging 19.42 total bases per game. As far as slugging percentage, there’s no average per game for it, but the record is also held by the 2002 team at .546. This year’s team slugging percentage is 0.559 at this point in the season.

There are three teams that hold most of these records, 2002, 2007, and 2013. As previously mentioned two of those three teams made very deep runs into the postseason. The 2007 team went all the way to the National Championship losing to Oregon State 2-0 in a best-of-3 series. The 2013 team lost in the semifinals of the double-elimination round in the College World Series to UCLA. In 2002, Carolina lost to South Carolina in game 7 of the regionals, scoring only 1 run.

There are 30 regular season games left, plus a minimum of three ACC Tournament games in the current format. Assuming the Tar Heels, ranking 15th in the most recent D1 baseball poll, make the NCAA Tournament, they will have a minimum of two games there. Meaning with 35 minimum games remaining, all of these records are currently within reach for a team that has started the season on fire offensively and came on stronger as of late, scoring 16 or more runs in 3 of their last 6 games.

These records will be something to watch over the next several weeks as the Tar Heels progress deeper into conference play and we will certainly report more if the Diamond Heels get close to these records further along in the season.

The Diamond Heels are 18-6, winning 7 of their last 8. UNC will face Coastal Carolina on Tuesday at 6 PM in Chapel Hill. You can watch on ACCNX.

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