Dalatri's Gem Completes Weekend Sweep

Sunday, February 26

Chapel Hill

1:00 PM

North Carolina

7-0

Radford

1-6

Radford

North Carolina

February 26, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score

By: UNC Athletic Communications

CHAPEL HILL --- Luca Dalatri struck out 15 and did not walk a batter over eight sparkling innings as No. 9 North Carolina completed its second weekend sweep of the year with a 7-5 win over Radford Sunday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium. Dalatri's 15 strikeouts were the most for any Tar Heel since Matt Harvey struck out 15 at Clemson in 2010. Brian Miller and Logan Warmoth had two hits apiece to lead the Carolina offense.

Dalatri (2-0) struck out at least one Highlander in each of his eight innings, including punching out the side in the eighth. The freshman from Wall Township, New Jersey, needed just 99 pitches on the day and 75 of those were strikes. Dalatri delivered first pitch strikes to 22 of the 28 batters he faced and went to a 3-ball count just once. His 15 Ks were the most for a UNC freshman under Mike Fox.

Ashton McGee's RBI single in the second put the Tar Heels (7-0) ahead to stay. Aided by five Radford errors, Carolina added three runs in the third and three more in the seventh to build a 7-0 lead.

Radford (1-6) got two runs against Dalatri in the eighth on an infield single of the pitcher's glove and then made it interesting in the ninth against the UNC bullpen. Four straight Highlanders reached with two outs before Josh Hiatt came in to get the final out and pick up his fifth save of the year.

Warmoth's two hits extended his reached base streak to 22 games. The junior shortstop also swiped a career-high three bases to give him five steals for the weekend. Carolina played errorless ball once again, the seventh time in eight games the Tar Heels have gone without a defensive miscue.

UNC will continue its busy early schedule with a pair of midweek games Tuesday and Wednesday. The Tar Heels host Winthrop on Tuesday and St. John's on Wednesday, with both games slated to begin at 3 p.m.