UNC Baseball Offense Comes To Life, advances to Semifinals

The UNC baseball program advanced to the ACC Semifinals on Thursday afternoon with a 10-2 victory over No. 2 seed Virginia.

The UNC baseball team completed their pool play segment on Thursday when they faced No. 2 seed Virginia in Pool B’s de facto championship game (à la ACC quarterfinal). Both teams entered the matchup 1-0 in pool B play, defeating No. 11 seed Georgia Tech the previous two days.

The Diamond Heels got on the board early thanks to a fielding error by Virginia second baseman, Henry Godbout, that allowed Jackson Van De Brake to score and give Carolina an early 1-0 lead. Van De Brake would return the favor to the Cavaliers in the third inning though committing an error of his own that allowed UVA to score a run and tie the game.

The Carolina offense would make up for Van De Brake’s mistake the next inning though with a three-run fourth inning. Hunter Stokely came up with an RBI single and then Alberto Osuna followed that with a two-RBI double before Colby Wilkerson knocked home Stokely with a sacrifice fly to give the Tar Heels a 4-1 lead.

The Cavaliers picked up a run in the sixth on a solo home run and cut the deficit back to two, trailing 4-2 after six full innings of play. The Diamond Heels offense took over at the DBAP in the seventh and eighth innings, scoring three runs in each frame. Player of the game, Tomas Frick, hit a two-RBI single in the seventh and Patrick Alvarez also had an RBI single.

In the eighth, the Tar Heels loaded the bases and Frick blasted a bases-clearing double to the left-center field wall that just missed leaving the stadium for a grand slam, but still plated three Tar Heels and left the Carolina bullpen with a 10-2 lead heading to the final two Virginia frames.

The Tar Heels bullpen didn’t allow Virginia to pick up any runs in the eighth or ninth inning and completed a great week of pool play. Jake Knapp’s starting performance against Virginia shouldn’t be overlooked either. While the offense was strong and put up ten runs, Knapp went a solid 5.2 innings allowing five hits and only two runs.

The Diamond Heels only used two pitchers against Virginia and have the day off tomorrow before ACC Semifinal action begins on Saturday. Scott Forbes and his staff have set the Tar Heels up in a perfect position to make another great post-season run in the ACC Tournament (and beyond) this season.

The Tar Heels will face the winner of Pool C which will be determined Friday morning at 11:00 AM when Clemson plays Boston College. The winner will advance to Saturday’s semifinal which will be on Saturday at 5:00 PM.

Something to keep an eye on is the weather in the area of the ACC Tournament as the forecast has projected rain on Saturday and Sunday. Per Conor O’Neill, the ACC has a plan in place to determine a champion if they can’t get the games played.

Regardless of the outcome in Durham at the ACC Tournament, the UNC baseball program has won two of the last three ACC Tournaments and is playing great baseball again in May and headed into June, giving Tar Heel fans something to look forward to over the next several weeks.

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