No. 4 Tar Heels Drop Wolfpack, 7-1

Saturday, April 15

Chapel Hill

4:00 PM

North Carolina

29-6, 14-3

NC State

19-17, 7-10

NC State

North Carolina

April 16, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score

By: UNC Athletic Communications

CHAPEL HILL --- Gianluca Dalatri won his second straight start and No. 4 North Carolina secured its sixth consecutive ACC series with a 7-1 victory over NC State Saturday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium. Brandon Riley had two hits including an RBI triple in the sixth that gave the Tar Heels the lead for good. Carolina will go for its third consecutive sweep Sunday at 2 p.m.

Dalatri (4-2) and NC State's Brian Brown (1-1) both settled in after early struggles to keep the offenses quiet for much of the early innings. Brock Deatherage singled home Brett Kinneman to give State (19-17, 7-10 ACC) the lead in the second, but Brandon Martorano's sac fly in the bottom half quickly tied the game.

Dalatri retired eight of the last nine men he faced to keep it a 1-1 contest before the Tar Heels (29-6, 14-3 ACC) finally got to Brown in the sixth. Kyle Datres led off the inning with a double to left and scored the go-ahead run on Riley's second triple of the year. That was the end of the day for Brown, and Carolina got two more against Tommy DeJuneas on a Cody Roberts sac fly and a Michael Busch pinch-hit RBI single.

Ashton McGee doubled and scored on a wild pitch in the seventh and Logan Warmoth capped the scoring with a two-run single in the eighth that made it 7-1.

Rodney Hutchison Jr. earned his first career save by retiring the final seven NC State batters on just 20 pitches.

Tyler Lynn added two hits and scored a pair of runs as the Tar Heels locked up a series win against an ACC foe for the sixth straight weekend.

Carolina will send Austin Bergner to the mound in Sunday's 2 p.m. series finale in search of a third straight sweep.