Friday, March 16
Chapel Hill
6 p.m.
North Carolina
10-8, 0
15
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3
Pittsburgh
11-5, 0
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9
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Pittsburgh
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North Carolina
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15
14
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Brandon Riley doubles to right.
Photo by: Joe Bray
Baum, Gahagan Power Heels Past Pitt, 15-3
March 16, 2018 | Baseball
Chapel Hill -- The Tar Heels used a nine-run third inning to run away from Pittsburgh on Friday night, 15-3, to take game one of the three-game ACC series. Tyler Baum, now 10-0 in his career, picked up his third win of the season after throwing a career-high seven innings while only allowing two earned runs as he struck out four Panther batters. Four Tar Heels had multi-RBI games, led by Zack Gahagan who went 2-4 with 5 RBI, including a big solo home run in the third inning.
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Alex Amos started the game with a leadoff single for Pitt with a chopper over Kyle Datres at third to put one on with no outs early for the Panthers. On the first pitch of the next at bat, Amos took off for second and found his way to third when Gahagan couldn't handle the throw from Brandon Martorano. After a Baum strikeout, David Yanni picked up the game's first RBI off a sacrifice fly to right field to score Amos for the early 1-0 lead. After catching the fly ball in right field, Cody Roberts fired a line drive to Martorano at home in plenty of time, but he couldn't hold on to the ball as Amos flipped head first over Martorano at home.Â
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The Tar Heels responded in the second inning with two runs of its own to take a 2-1 lead. With two outs, Brandon Riley kept the inning alive with a double to the wall in right center field. Back-to-back walks to Ike Freeman and Martorano loaded the bases for Ben Casparius. In his first career start and fifth at bat of the year, Casparius singled up the middle to drive home Riley and Freeman. The Heels looked like they were going to tack on a few more runs, but Michael Busch grounded out to second with the bases loaded to end the inning.
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Carolina exploded in the third inning with nine runs on seven hits by 13 Tar Heels to take a 11-1 lead. Datres and Gahagan led the way as they started the inning with back-to-back home runs, the first since 2014 when Michael Russell and Tom Zengel went back-to-back at Duke on March 29. Gahagan followed up his home run with a bases loaded double later in the inning to clear the bases for a four RBI inning. Ashton McGee, Michael Busch and Freeman also hit doubles in the inning to bring home two of the Tar Heel runs. With Busch's double, he equaled his 2017 RBI total with 22, and would later go on to surpass it and end the night with 24.
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In the top of the fifth inning Pittsburgh tacked on two runs with one swing of the bat thanks to a Ron Washington two-run home run. Maldonado singled to start the inning before Washington hit a shot over the left field wall to make the score 11-3.
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The Heels went back to work in the sixth to add four more runs to increase its lead to 15-3. Back-to-back singles from Riley and Freeman, followed by a walk to Casparius loaded the bases for Roberts who chopped an infield single to third to bring home one run. Up next, Busch added to his RBI total on the day with a single to score two more Tar Heels before Gahagan walked with the bases loaded to bring home the final run of the inning. Â
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Casparius and Hansen Butler would each pitch one inning to close out the game for the Tar Heels, securing the 15-3 win and giving the Heels a 10-2 overall record and 2-2 in the ACC. Nine different players recorded hits for the Tar Heels while eight players crossed the plate.
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While the Carolina offense was the story of the night, the bullpen was once again dominant as it has now not conceded a run in 18.2 consecutive innings, a span that dates back to Saturday, March 10 against Louisville.
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Carolina will look to win the series against Pittsburgh on Saturday, March 17 at 4 p.m. at Boshamer Stadium.Â
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Alex Amos started the game with a leadoff single for Pitt with a chopper over Kyle Datres at third to put one on with no outs early for the Panthers. On the first pitch of the next at bat, Amos took off for second and found his way to third when Gahagan couldn't handle the throw from Brandon Martorano. After a Baum strikeout, David Yanni picked up the game's first RBI off a sacrifice fly to right field to score Amos for the early 1-0 lead. After catching the fly ball in right field, Cody Roberts fired a line drive to Martorano at home in plenty of time, but he couldn't hold on to the ball as Amos flipped head first over Martorano at home.Â
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The Tar Heels responded in the second inning with two runs of its own to take a 2-1 lead. With two outs, Brandon Riley kept the inning alive with a double to the wall in right center field. Back-to-back walks to Ike Freeman and Martorano loaded the bases for Ben Casparius. In his first career start and fifth at bat of the year, Casparius singled up the middle to drive home Riley and Freeman. The Heels looked like they were going to tack on a few more runs, but Michael Busch grounded out to second with the bases loaded to end the inning.
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Carolina exploded in the third inning with nine runs on seven hits by 13 Tar Heels to take a 11-1 lead. Datres and Gahagan led the way as they started the inning with back-to-back home runs, the first since 2014 when Michael Russell and Tom Zengel went back-to-back at Duke on March 29. Gahagan followed up his home run with a bases loaded double later in the inning to clear the bases for a four RBI inning. Ashton McGee, Michael Busch and Freeman also hit doubles in the inning to bring home two of the Tar Heel runs. With Busch's double, he equaled his 2017 RBI total with 22, and would later go on to surpass it and end the night with 24.
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In the top of the fifth inning Pittsburgh tacked on two runs with one swing of the bat thanks to a Ron Washington two-run home run. Maldonado singled to start the inning before Washington hit a shot over the left field wall to make the score 11-3.
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The Heels went back to work in the sixth to add four more runs to increase its lead to 15-3. Back-to-back singles from Riley and Freeman, followed by a walk to Casparius loaded the bases for Roberts who chopped an infield single to third to bring home one run. Up next, Busch added to his RBI total on the day with a single to score two more Tar Heels before Gahagan walked with the bases loaded to bring home the final run of the inning. Â
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Casparius and Hansen Butler would each pitch one inning to close out the game for the Tar Heels, securing the 15-3 win and giving the Heels a 10-2 overall record and 2-2 in the ACC. Nine different players recorded hits for the Tar Heels while eight players crossed the plate.
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While the Carolina offense was the story of the night, the bullpen was once again dominant as it has now not conceded a run in 18.2 consecutive innings, a span that dates back to Saturday, March 10 against Louisville.
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Carolina will look to win the series against Pittsburgh on Saturday, March 17 at 4 p.m. at Boshamer Stadium.Â
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Baum, Tyler (3-0)
L: Derek West (1-2)
Batting:
2B: Frank Maldonado 1
HR: Ron Washington Jr. 1
RBI: David Yanni 1 ; Ron Washington Jr. 2
SH: Alex Amos 1
SF: David Yanni 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Alex Amos 1 ; Frank Maldonado 1 ; Ron Washington Jr. 1
SB: Alex Amos 1
CS: Connor Perry 1
Batting:
2B: Busch, Michael 1 ; Gahagan, Zack 1 ; McGee, Ashton 1 ; Riley, Brandon 1 ; Freeman, Ike 1
HR: Datres, Kyle 1 ; Gahagan, Zack 1
RBI: Roberts, Cody 2 ; Busch, Michael 3 ; Datres, Kyle 1 ; Gahagan, Zack 5 ; McGee, Ashton 1 ; Casparius, Ben 3
SF: Roberts, Cody 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Roberts, Cody 1 ; Busch, Michael 1 ; Datres, Kyle 2 ; Gahagan, Zack 2 ; Riley, Brandon 3 ; Freeman, Ike 3 ; Martorano, Brandon 1 ; Casparius, Ben 2
HBP: Datres, Kyle 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
3
H
3
RBI
0
AB
5
R
1
H
2
RBI
3
AB
4
R
2
H
2
RBI
5
AB
3
R
3
H
2
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
RHP
/ Baseball1B
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RHP
/ Baseball
INF/RHP
/ Baseball
3B
/ BaseballSS/2B
/ Baseball1B/3B/2B
/ Baseball
C/OF
/ Baseball
OF/2B/3B
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
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