University of North Carolina Athletics
Sunday, March 4
Chapel Hill
1 p.m.
North Carolina
7-5
13
vs
8
Liberty
6-5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
LIBERTY
1
1
1
0
3
1
0
0
1
8
12
2
North Carolina
1
0
0
10
0
1
1
0
X
13
10
0
Brandon Riley homers in the sixth.
Tar Heels Sweep Liberty, Win Finale 13-8
March 4, 2018 | Baseball
The Tar Heel offense continued its hot streak to complete the series sweep over Liberty with a 13-8 win on Sunday afternoon. The effort was propelled by a 10-run fourth inning that was too much for Liberty's comeback attempt to overcome. Carolina outscored Liberty 36-15 over the course of the weekend.Â
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Both teams had the offense working early as Liberty plated a run on a RBI double off the right field wall by Dylan Allen in the top of the first. The Heels responded in the bottom of the frame when Dallas Tessar worked a leadoff walk and used some aggressive base running to get into position to score on a RBI single by Kyle Datres.
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Liberty kept their offense going in the second inning with a solo shot to left from Andrew Yacyk and followed it with a sac fly from Allen in the third to score D.J. Artis to give Liberty the 3-1 lead.
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The Carolina offense would catch fire in the bottom of the fourth, sending 14 men to the plate, with all nine players scoring en route to a 10-spot for the inning. Datres got things going with a leadoff single and scored on a pass ball while Ashton McGee had a big inning with a RBI single in his first at-bat, and capped the inning with a two-RBI double his second time up. Brandon Martorano narrowly missed a home run on a RBI double off the top of the wall in right and would score on a RBI single by Ike Freeman. Brandon Riley and Cody Roberts both worked bases loaded walks to plate a pair as Datres recorded a sac fly in his second at bat of the inning to plate Freeman. Another passed ball to bring home Riley would round out the scoring and give North Carolina a 11-3 lead.
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However, Liberty wouldn't go quietly as they answered with a big inning of their own in the top of the fifth. A leadoff double by Cam Locklear and a walk to Artis set up a RBI double by Jonathan Embry. Allen continued his big day with a two-RBI double later in the inning. Liberty would then reload the bases, still with nobody out, but the Tar Heel bullpen would bear down as Brett Daniels got an infield pop-up and back-to-back strike outs to leave them loaded and limit the damage to just three runs and preserve the 11-6 lead.
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Liberty once again threatened for a big inning in the top of the sixth with the bases loaded and nobody out for the second consecutive inning. But after a bases loaded walk that brought in a run, Josh Hiatt got a shallow fly ball and induced a 6-4-3 double play to get out of the inning only allowing one run.
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Riley wasted no time getting that run back in the bottom of the sixth with a leadoff solo home run to right field. Martorano would follow suit the very next inning with his own solo home run to start the inning for the 13-7 lead.
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Liberty would tack on one more in the top of the ninth inning on a RBI single by Locklear, but that would be all as the deficit was too much for the Flames.
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Seven Tar Heels saw time on the mound today, with Taylor Sugg (1-0) picking up his first win of the year. At the plate, McGee went 3 for 4 with three RBI and a run scored while Datres and Martorano both had two-hit games and scored two runs.
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No. 13 North Carolina (7-5) returns to action Tuesday at 3 p.m. against VCU at Boshamer Stadium.
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Both teams had the offense working early as Liberty plated a run on a RBI double off the right field wall by Dylan Allen in the top of the first. The Heels responded in the bottom of the frame when Dallas Tessar worked a leadoff walk and used some aggressive base running to get into position to score on a RBI single by Kyle Datres.
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Liberty kept their offense going in the second inning with a solo shot to left from Andrew Yacyk and followed it with a sac fly from Allen in the third to score D.J. Artis to give Liberty the 3-1 lead.
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The Carolina offense would catch fire in the bottom of the fourth, sending 14 men to the plate, with all nine players scoring en route to a 10-spot for the inning. Datres got things going with a leadoff single and scored on a pass ball while Ashton McGee had a big inning with a RBI single in his first at-bat, and capped the inning with a two-RBI double his second time up. Brandon Martorano narrowly missed a home run on a RBI double off the top of the wall in right and would score on a RBI single by Ike Freeman. Brandon Riley and Cody Roberts both worked bases loaded walks to plate a pair as Datres recorded a sac fly in his second at bat of the inning to plate Freeman. Another passed ball to bring home Riley would round out the scoring and give North Carolina a 11-3 lead.
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However, Liberty wouldn't go quietly as they answered with a big inning of their own in the top of the fifth. A leadoff double by Cam Locklear and a walk to Artis set up a RBI double by Jonathan Embry. Allen continued his big day with a two-RBI double later in the inning. Liberty would then reload the bases, still with nobody out, but the Tar Heel bullpen would bear down as Brett Daniels got an infield pop-up and back-to-back strike outs to leave them loaded and limit the damage to just three runs and preserve the 11-6 lead.
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Liberty once again threatened for a big inning in the top of the sixth with the bases loaded and nobody out for the second consecutive inning. But after a bases loaded walk that brought in a run, Josh Hiatt got a shallow fly ball and induced a 6-4-3 double play to get out of the inning only allowing one run.
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Riley wasted no time getting that run back in the bottom of the sixth with a leadoff solo home run to right field. Martorano would follow suit the very next inning with his own solo home run to start the inning for the 13-7 lead.
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Liberty would tack on one more in the top of the ninth inning on a RBI single by Locklear, but that would be all as the deficit was too much for the Flames.
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Seven Tar Heels saw time on the mound today, with Taylor Sugg (1-0) picking up his first win of the year. At the plate, McGee went 3 for 4 with three RBI and a run scored while Datres and Martorano both had two-hit games and scored two runs.
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No. 13 North Carolina (7-5) returns to action Tuesday at 3 p.m. against VCU at Boshamer Stadium.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Sugg, Taylor (1-0)
L: STAMPER, Brady (1-1)
Batting:
2B: ARTIS, D.J. 1 ; EMBRY, Jonathan 1 ; ALLEN, Dylan 2 ; LOCKLEAR, Cam 1
HR: YACYK, Andrew 1
RBI: EMBRY, Jonathan 1 ; TODD, Tre 1 ; ALLEN, Dylan 4 ; YACYK, Andrew 1 ; LOCKLEAR, Cam 1
SH: EMBRY, Jonathan 1
SF: ALLEN, Dylan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: ARTIS, D.J. 2 ; EMBRY, Jonathan 1 ; TODD, Tre 1 ; YACYK, Andrew 1 ; REESE, E.P. 1 ; LOCKLEAR, Cam 2
SB: REESE, E.P. 1
Batting:
2B: McGee, Ashton 2 ; Martorano, Brandon 1
HR: Riley, Brandon 1 ; Martorano, Brandon 1
RBI: Riley, Brandon 2 ; Datres, Kyle 2 ; Roberts, Cody 1 ; McGee, Ashton 3 ; Martorano, Brandon 2 ; Freeman, Ike 1
SH: Roberts, Cody 1
SF: Datres, Kyle 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Tessar, Dallas 2 ; Riley, Brandon 2 ; Datres, Kyle 1 ; Busch, Michael 2 ; Roberts, Cody 1 ; McGee, Ashton 1 ; Martorano, Brandon 2 ; Gahagan, Zack 1 ; Freeman, Ike 1
CS: Datres, Kyle 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
1
H
3
RBI
3
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
2
AB
4
R
2
H
2
RBI
2
cf/rf
AB
4
R
2
H
1
RBI
2
Players Mentioned
RHP
/ Baseball3B
/ Baseball
SS/2B
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballC/OF
/ BaseballOF/2B/3B
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
C
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RHP
/ Baseball
SS/OF
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