UNC Baseball: Carlson keeps Tar Heels season alive

The UNC Baseball program faced No. 4 seed Wright State in the Terre Haute regional in the loser’s bracket of regional play hoping to keep the season alive.

Scott Forbes and UNC baseball program lost a heartbreaker to No. 2 seed Iowa on Friday night when they left the tying run on base 90 feet from home. However, they entered Saturday’s elimination game against No. 4 seed Wright State and had to put Friday’s game behind them.

The offensive struggles from Friday night continued for the Diamond Heels for the early part of the game, and the starting pitching was the highlight. Colby Wilkerson recorded the first hit and run of the game when he got a hit and then scored on a 6-4-3 double play with no outs in the bottom of the third inning.

Ace pitcher Max Carlson had a fantastic day that the Carolina bullpen desperately needed to have hope of advancing through the consolation bracket.

Carlson went 6.2 innings, allowing only one hit and striking out five Raiders on only 82 total pitches. He would’ve gone 7 complete innings, but unfortunately, an error by right fielder Casey Cook led to the inning being extended by one out and forcing manager Scott Forbes to go to Dalton Pence out of the bullpen.

Carlson will forgive Cook for his mishap though. In the top of the fifth inning, Cook made a highlight reel play that kept a two-run home run off the board that would’ve given the Raiders a 2-1 lead at the time.

Thanks to Cook’s phenomenal play, the score stayed 1-0. Forbes allowed the sophomore Pence to stay in for the remainder of the game. Pence went scoreless during his outing, working around an inherited runner on second base during the seventh inning, and not allowing a Raider to reach base in the eighth or ninth.

In the Carolina half of the seventh inning, Mac Horvath came to the plate with two runners on base and two outs. Horvath had significantly struggled during the NCAA Tournament, going 0-4 with a walk on Friday night and coming to the plate 0-3 on Saturday. However, despite his 0-7 performance at the plate, Horvath put all that behind him and gave the Diamond Heels a huge boost in the seventh.

The three-run home run by the Tar Heel star put the Heels up 4-0 and gave the bullpen a comfortable lead. The Horvath home run forced the Raiders to turn to their bullpen. Starting pitcher Luke Stofel went 6.2 innings allowing six hits and throwing 116 total pitches.

The Diamond Heels were able to get another run home in the eighth thanks to a two-out, RBI single by Johnny Castagnozzi that scored Tomas Frick from third base and extended the Carolina lead to 5-0, which would ultimately be the final score.

Carlson recorded the win and Pence got the save as the Diamond Heels fought off elimination with a shutout win. Carolina impressively only allowed one hit by the Raiders all afternoon. Forbes only needing to turn to his bullpen once and use two pitchers all afternoon is a huge bonus for a team that will have to win four consecutive games if it wishes to advance out of the Terre Haute regional.

The UNC baseball program will play again on Sunday at 12:00 PM ET versus the loser between No. 1 Indiana State and No. 2 Iowa which will take place on Saturday evening at 6:00 PM ET.

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