University of North Carolina Athletics
No. 6 Carolina Travels To No. 2 NC State For Big Weekend Series
April 26, 2018 | Baseball
All three games can be seen on ACC Network Extra and heard on GoHeels.com. The games on Friday and Saturday will take place at 6:30 p.m. ET with the series finale starting at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.
NC STATE SERIES HISTORY
• The Tar Heels and Wolfpack will face off for the 300th time in the series history on Saturday night. In the previous 298 meetings, Carolina holds a 164-133-1 series lead.
• The teams have already met once this year in the Dual at the DBAP on April 17. NC State took that game 8-3. Ashton McGee led the way for the Heels, going 2-4 with two RBI.
• NC State will be the second opponent Carolina has faced 300 times, with the other being Virginia. UNC and UVA also played their 300th game this season.
• The Heels took the series last season in Chapel Hill, winning two of three. Cody Roberts went 4-8 with three RBI in the series and Luca Dalatri picked up a win on the bump in game two.
• This series marks the first time since 2013 that North Carolina and N.C. State have played with both teams in the top-10. In that rain-shortened two-game series the two teams split. The Heels were led by Kent Emmanuel, N.C. State getting a win courtesy of Carlos Rodon.
Quick Notes
• Since starting the year 7-7, UNC has gone 21-6 and 14-3 in its last 17 games.
• Carolina is currently 15-6 in the ACC and tied with NC State for the overall conference lead and 1.5 games ahead of Duke in the Coastal Division.
• UNC has now swept 3 conference series (Pitt, Wake, GT) same as the 2017 season.
• UNC and Clemson both have swept 3 ACC series this year. 2 of the last 4 teams to top the ACC in sweeps have gone to Omaha (2015 Miami, 2017 Louisville).
• Michael Busch now has 46 RBI on the season and leads the team with 10 HR. He is currently 1st in the ACC in RBI and tied for first in ACC play in HR (6).
• Busch's 10 home runs are the most by a UNC player through 40 games since Dustin Ackley and Levi Michael hit 11 and 10, respectively, through the first 40 games in 2009.
• Kyle Datres career-best hitting streak ended at 18 games over the weekend. During that span, he hit .394, led the team in hits (28), doubles (8), and total bases (44).
• Over the last 3 ACC series, Freeman is leading the team in batting average (.424).
• Freeman ranks 6th in ACC games in batting average with a .354. and 5th in hits (28).
• Freeman currently has a career-high 15 game reached base streak, and has hit safely in 13 of his last 15 games.
• Over his last 3 app., Cooper Criswell is 2-1 and is averaging 14.33 K's per game. he is striking out 13 batters for every one walk and only averaging 1.10 walks per game.
• Last 3 games, Criswell has thrown strikes on 72.9 percent (183-of-251) of his pitches.
• Since starting during the UVA series, the Tar Heels have gone 6-1 with Dallas Tessar at leadoff while he leads batting (.346) and second in hits (9) in those 7 games.
• Through 21 games, UNC has one of the best offenses in ACC. Below are the categories the Tar Heels lead in: Batting Average: (.296), On-Base Percentage (.394), Slugging Percentage (.455), Runs (160), Hits (224), RBI (155)
• In ACC games only, Brett Daniels is 3rd in ERA (1.57), leads in appearances (15) and tied for first in wins (4). He's only allowed 6 runs in 28.2 IP while striking out 27 batters.
