Sabato Hits For Cycle, Tar Heels Top NC State 5-3

Thursday, May 16

Chapel Hill

6 p.m.

North Carolina

NC State

May 16, 2019 | Baseball

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By: T.J. Scholl

CHAPEL HILL – Aaron Sabato continued his hot streak as he hit for the cycle and drove in four runs to pace the Tar Heels to a 5-3 win over NC State in game 1 of the series. Tyler Baum turned in a quality start and the bullpen was equally solid to limit NC State's offense to just three runs and escape multiple jams. Carolina remained in striking distance all game and took advantage late to take the lead for good in the bottom of the seventh inning, courtesy of a Sabato two-RBI triple.

Aaron Sabato was responsible for four of Carolina's six hits on the evening and four of the five RBIs.

Key Moments

Sabato gave the Heels an early lead when he crushed one to straight-away center and off the batter's eye for a two-run home run.
NC State threatened to respond in the top of the second after two walks led off the inning, but Baum came back with two strikeouts and a fly out to keep the Wolfpack off the board.
State got on the board in the third, stringing together four straight two-out singles to manufacture a pair of runs and tie the game before taking the lead on an error.
Sabato stayed red hot in the seventh, when he roped a 2 RBI triple off the center field wall to put Carolina back on top, 4-3.
After Baum's day finished in the 7^th and Caden O'Brien issued a walk to his only batter, Hansen Butler got a big strikeout to leave two runners on base and escape the jam.
In the top of the eighth, NC State loaded the bases with just one out. Joey Lancellotti came to the mound and recorded a big strikeout and an infield pop up to escape the jam and preserve the lead.
Ike Freeman provided some insurance in the bottom of the eighth with a leadoff home run that barely cleared the left field wall, and push the lead to 5-3.
Lancellotti allowed a leadoff single in the ninth, but worked around it to pick up the save.

Notables

Aaron Sabato hit for the cycle, the first by a Tar Heel since Colin Moran in 2012. He is the third player to hit for the cycle under Mike Fox and the first freshman to do so. He logged a home run in the first, a single in the third, a double in the fifth and a triple in the seventh. The cycle was good for his first career four-hit game.
That was Sabato's 19^th multi-hit game and 15^th multi-RBI game, both numbers good for team highs.
With his first inning home run, Sabato moves into a tie for second all-time in home runs by a UNC freshman at 13. He only trails Chad Flack who has 15 during his freshman year.
Sabato extended his hitting streak to eight games thanks to his cycle. Each game of his hit streak is a multi-hit game.
During Sabato's 8-game hitting streak he is hitting .636 and leads the team in hits (21), doubles (6), home runs (4), RBIs (19), slugging % (1.242) on base % (.676) T-1st in triples (1) and has a perfect fielding percentage of 1.000.
With a first inning walk, Michael Busch has now reached base safely in 26 consecutive games.
Carolina scored in the first inning for the 24^th time this season, and have a record of 22-2 in those games.
Each North Carolina RBI today came via extra base hit.
UNC is now 14-12 in games in which they have been out hit.
It was just the second time all season that the Heels have come back to win a game when trailing after the 6th inning. They are currently 2-12 in those games.
Baum's final line: 6.2 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K