UNC Baseball opens ACC Tournament with win over Georgia Tech

The UNC baseball program began ACC Tournament pool play on Tuesday with a win over the no. 11 seed Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

The ACC Baseball tournament began on Tuesday afternoon in Durham and UNC baseball was the No. 7 seed in the event paired in Pool B with No. 2 seed Virginia and No. 11 seed Georgia Tech.

If you are new to the ACC tournament format, there are four pools of three teams. The three teams play each other over a four-day period and the team with the best record advances to the ACC Semifinals on Saturday. If multiple teams are tied with a 1-1 record, then the higher seed advances.

Unfortunately for the Diamond Heels, one of their most important players in the field and ACC Defensive Player of the Year, Vance Honeycutt has been listed as doubtful for the ACC tournament.

The Tar Heels and Yellow Jackets were the second game of the event and Carolina’s offense got the scoring started early by scoring three in the first inning thanks to a Tomas Frick RBI single and then Patrick Alvarez came through with a two-RBI single himself.

Hunter Stokely added another RBI on a double in the third inning to put the Tar Heels up 4-0. Max Carlson was the starting pitcher and went four innings, giving up six hits and only one run. Once Carlson exited the game in the fifth inning, the Yellow Jackets began to attempt to chip away at the deficit.

Georgia Tech was able to cut the lead in half to 4-2 by the end of thief half of the sixth on an RBI single and a solo home run. However following a wild pitch that Castagnozzi scored on, Jackson Van De Brake got those runs back on a two-RBI single that plated Mac Horvath and Colby Wilkerson to put the Diamond Heels on top 7-2.

Once again, Georgia Tech answered to make it 7-4 in the middle of the seventh inning, but then the Tar Heel offense really came to life scoring four runs on a Horvath home run and three RBI base hits by Frick, Alvarez, and Johnny Castognozzi in the eighth inning to extend the lead to 11-4 and put the Yellow Jackets rally to rest.

The Tar Heels would win 11-5 and secure a 1-0 record in pool play. Next up will be No. 2 seed Virginia on Thursday at 3:00 PM for a spot in the ACC Semifinals on Saturday. The Cavaliers have to play Georgia Tech on Wednesday in a “meaningless game”.

From the UNC baseball perspective, fans can only hope that the Yellow Jackets can get deep into the UVA bullpen and make Virgina use some pitching prior to Thursday’s game.

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