Love Saves Carolina's 5-4 Win and Series Sweep

Sunday, February 16

Chapel Hill, N.C.

1 p.m.

North Carolina

3-0

Middle Tennessee

0-3

Middle Tennessee

North Carolina

Austin Love

Photo by: Joe Bray

February 16, 2020 | Baseball

Box Score Feb 16 UNC 5, MTSU 4 Box Photo Gallery

Sabato's Two-Run Double Started the Scoring

By: Steve Kirschner

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
SUNDAY, FEB. 16, 2020

LOVE SAVES CAROLINA'S 5-4 WIN AND SERIES SWEEP

CHAPEL HILL – Preseason Closer of the Year candidate Austin Love struck out Greg Bennett and got Cole Escher to fly softly to center field to end the game with the tying run on second base to preserve the University of North Carolina's 5-4 win Sunday over Middle Tennessee in the final game of a three-game set at Boshamer Stadium.

Carolina won the three games by 15-3, 2-1 and 5-4 scores.

Carolina scored all five of its runs today by the fourth inning, building a 5-2 advantage, before the Blue Raiders added solo runs in the fifth and sixth innings to climb within a run, but that was as close as they would get.

Tar Heel starter Connor Ollio gave up four runs in five and a third innings to get the win. Chris Joyner made his Tar Heel debut in the sixth inning and gave up a couple of singles, the second of which drove in pinch-runner Hunter Sullivan to make it 5-4 UNC. With the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on second, Joyner struck out Bennett to end the threat.

"I just wanted to go out there and give the team a chance to win, not just compete," says Ollio, the Renfrew, Pa. native, who picked up his fourth win five decisions as a Tar Heel. "I didn't want to be too fine, and I think I did that. We got the win today, and that's all that matters… I just commanded the zone and threw strikes. I just let the defense do their thing and that's all. Just got ahead, stayed ahead."

Carolina jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second on a two-run double by Aaron Sabato and a run-scoring single by Danny Serretti. Freshman Patrick Alvarez got his first collegiate hit and drove in a run with a double in the third inning and senior center fielder Dylan Harris led off the fourth with a solo homer, his second in as many days, to give UNC a 5-2 lead.

All the scoring was done by the sixth. Love came on in the eighth; the inning ended when UNC freshman catcher Eric Grintz threw out Sullivan trying to steal second.

In the top of the ninth, MTSU shortstop Fausto Lopez cracked a one-out double, his third hit and second double on the day. Love then retired Bennett and Escher to end the game. It was the sophomore ace's sixth career save. He was the winning pitcher on Saturday.

Middle Tennessee out-hit UNC, 11-6. Both teams left six on base.

"They were three entirely different games and it was good that we found a way to win all three," says UNC head coach Mike Fox. "Anytime you can sweep anybody now in college baseball is hard to do, no matter what. I'll give Middle Tennessee credit, the last two days, they pitched well and didn't walk anybody. They made plays and if you do that, you're pretty much in every game. Obviously, I'm our team's harshest critic, but I really thought they outplayed us for the most part from about the third inning on (today). But you've got to give our kids credit, our pitchers, especially our relievers getting us some strikeouts and some big outs when they needed to. We trust Austin Love coming in there at the end of the game, so we did just enough today to get a win.

"We've got to play better defensively. Again, nobody walked anybody today, so you give yourself a chance and we got a couple big hits. I can't be too critical of our team right out of the gate, we've got 55-plus games to go. I'll just let them enjoy winning the first three, and then we've got to turn right back around and play again here quickly. We're off and running."

Carolina returns to action on Tuesday, Feb. 18 at home against Elon at 3 p.m.