University of North Carolina Athletics
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Miami
No. 10 Miami Outlasts No. 18 UNC, 4-3
March 28, 2015 | Baseball
CHAPEL HILL --- Zack Collins' two-out home run in the 11th was the deciding run as No. 10 Miami scored a wild 4-3 win over No. 18 North Carolina Saturday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium. Carolina rallied to tie it in the ninth and the 10th against UM closer Bryan Garcia but left two on in the 11th against Cooper Hammond (3-1) to drop its second one-run game of the series. Landon Lassiter had four hits to lead the Tar Heels, who will look to avoid the sweep in Sunday's finale at noon.
Carolina (15-11, 5-6 ACC) had runners on base all day against a quintet of Hurricane pitchers, but the Tar Heels left 16 men on over 11 innings. Miami starter Andy Suarez allowed four hits and four walks in three innings but only surrendered one run on a Skye Bolt bases-loaded walk in the second.
J.B. Bukauskas cruised through six scoreless innings before UM (20-8, 8-3 ACC) tied it in the seventh. David Thompson led off the inning with just the second Miami hit of the day and moved to second on a balk. After a walk and a sacrifice, Garrett Kennedy's fly to center was deep enough to score Thompson.
George Iskenderian's RBI single off Trevor Kelley gave the Hurricanes the lead in the ninth, but Carolina extended the game against Garcia in both the ninth and the 10th. The Tar Heels were down to their last out in both innings but RBI hits from Zack Gahagan and Lassiter kept UNC alive.
But Collins' took Spencer Trayner (1-3) out to deep right with two gone in the 11th, and UNC finally ran out of chances against Cooper Hammond (3-1). Warmoth and Gahagan had back-to-back singles to lead off the frame, but Hammond struck out Tyler Ramirez and Adrian Chacon and got Adam Pate to foul out to end it.
Bukauskas lowered his ERA to 2.77 with his fourth consecutive strong outing against league competition. The righty from Ashburn, Virginia, has allowed just five runs in 24.1 ACC innings during his rookie season.
Carolina will look to salvage the series finale Sunday at noon when Benton Moss takes the ball.
