University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Notre Dame
No. 20 Tar Heels Fall To Notre Dame, 3-1
May 15, 2016 | Baseball
CHAPEL HILL --- Michael Hearne and Sean Guenther limited No. 20 North Carolina to just three hits as Notre Dame evened the Atlantic Coast Conference series with a 3-1 win over the Tar Heels Saturday night at Boshamer Stadium. Matt Vierling's two-run homer in the sixth off J.B. Bukauskas proved to be the difference on a night when both pitching staffs had the upper hand. Cody Roberts hit his first career home run off Hearne in the sixth to end the ND lefty's no-hit bid after 5.1 hitless innings.
Hearne and Bukauskas matched one another pitch for pitch through five innings in a matchup of wildly different approaches. The crafty Hearne, who spent most of the night working in the low 80s with success, allowed just three hits and struck out four over 7.0 innings of work to improve to 8-1 on the year. Bukauskas, the hard-throwing sophomore right-hander who leads the ACC in strikeouts, fanned eight ND batters over six innings but fell to 6-2.
Carolina (32-19, 11-15 ACC) came close to opening the scoring in the fourth when Brian Miller reached to lead off the inning and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice. But Logan Warmoth's fielder's choice turned into a double play when Miller was thrown out at the plate trying to score from second.
UNC's only other rally came in the seventh. Tyler Ramirez and Warmoth led off the frame with back-to-back infield singles. But Hearne retired the next three Tar Heels to strand two and keep the Irish (27-23, 11-13 ACC) on top. Guenther retired all six batters he faced to pick up his first save of the year.
The teams will have an off day Sunday before the series finale Monday at 7 p.m. That game, UNC's final regular season home game will be televised by ESPNU.
Carolina honored its three seniors prior to Saturday's game. Eli Sutherland, Chris McCue and Randy McNeill were presented with framed jerseys by coach Mike Fox.
