This Day In Tar Heel Baseball History: April 29

Zack Gahagan in the 2018 NC State game

Photo by: Joe Bray

April 29, 2020 | Baseball

By: Aury St. Germain

CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina will begin to look at "On This Day in Tar Heel History", as Tom Jensen will share his memories as an avid Tar Heel fan and regular at Boshamer Stadium.

April 29
For today's version of 'This Day in Recent Carolina Baseball History' we go back to 2007, 2017, and 2018 for a series clincher in Raleigh, a series win against a top 5 team at the Bosh, and a series *sweep* winner in Raleigh. Plus a quick hit from 2006 starring Coach Williams!

On April 29, 2007 the Heels were trying to get their first series win in Raleigh since 2001 after losing 11-1 Friday night but then coming back and winning Saturday to split the first two games of the series. It would be a back and forth afternoon.

Things started off well. Reid Fronk drew a leadoff walk and moved to 2nd on a deep fly ball by Seth Williams. Dustin Ackley worked a full count and then singled back up the middle to give the Heels a 1-0 lead.

Luke Putkonen threw a 1-2-3 1st. With 2 down in the 2nd Garrett Gore went deep to left- good timing for his second home run of the season- and the Heels led 2-0.

Luke threw a scoreless 2nd but the Pack got 1 in the 3rd and then a pair in the 4th to go up 3-2 before Luke threw a scoreless 5th.

In the top of the 6th the Heels battled back. Tim Federowicz hit a leadoff single and then Josh Horton parked one to right to restore the lead at 4-3.

The lead was short lived- the Pack came back with a pair in the 6th to retake the advantage at 5-4.

But that lead was short lived too. Reid Fronk went deep to center on the very first pitch of the 7th to tie the game and after Matt Danford threw a 1-2-3 7th the game went to the 8th still tied.

Tim Fedroff led off the 8th with a walk and moved to 2nd on a grounder by Benji Johnson but after another out he was still there when Reid Fronk came up with 2 down.

Reid Fronk was a gamer. The first thing I think of when it comes to him is getting hit by pitches. He got hit by 47 pitches in 188 college baseball games

Hughie Jennings- who mostly played in the 1800s!- has the all time MLB record for getting hit- 287 times in 1,284 career games. Reid's HBP rate is equivalent to getting hit 321 times in that many games. When you are getting mentioned in the same paragraph with Hughie Jennings you know you have an old school approach to the game!

Early in his junior year we were tied with Coastal and had the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th and Reid up and I yelled at him 'Reid, just get hit!' And he did on the first pitch for the walk off HBP. I hope it didn't hurt but I appreciated his willingness to take one for the team. (Kyle Datres deserves a lot of credit for this too, he got hit 41 times in 3 years, not quite on Reid's level but close.)

But anyway Reid could do a lot more than get hit by pitches. He played 3B, he played 1B, he played in the outfield. Over the course of his career he did a great job of adapting to whatever position we needed him to play based on other team personnel at any given time.

And he hit well from the start- a .301 average his freshman year- but he really developed his power bat over the course of his career and by his junior year he'd gone from 4 doubles and a home run his freshman year to 21 doubles, 5 triples, and 11 home runs.

So runner at 2nd, 2 down in the 8th, tie game in Raleigh. Reid hit a home run last inning. And after working a full count he hit a home run this inning too, out to left, giving the Heels a 7-5 lead. 2 innings, 2 home runs for Reid- one to tie the game, one to take the lead.

Rob Wooten came in for the 8th and struck out the first couple batters. With a runner on 1st Andrew Carignan came in and got a strikeout to end the inning. Then in the 9th after a leadoff walk he went strike out, fly out, strike out to end the game and earn his 10th save of the season- and give the Heels their first series win in Raleigh since 2001, especially impressive after losing the opening game of the series 11-1.

Matt Danford got the win to push his season record to 3-0 after his scoreless 7th. Reid led the way with his pair of home runs, driving in 3 and scoring 3. Tim Federowicz had 4 hits, Josh Horton had a pair, including his own home run, and the Heels headed into the exam break on a high note.

On April 29, 2017 the Heels were looking to clinch the series against Clemson- a top 5 team- after winning the previous night at the Bosh. That game had featured a late rally for the Heels thanks to a big inning, and this one followed a similar script.

Luca Dalatri threw a 1-2-3 1st for the Heels but had a tough 2nd and Clemson took a 3-0 lead. The Heels got one back in the bottom of the inning when Brandon Riley hit a 1 out single and then with 2 out Tyler Lynn doubled to right center to bring him all the way around.

The Tigers loaded the bases in the 3rd with 1 out and appeared to have a chance to blow the game wide open. But Luca got a strike out to hold the runners where they were, and then got the final out of the inning on a force at home.

After that he seemed to really settle in. He threw a scoreless 4th. And a 1-2-3 5th. And a 1-2-3 6th. And a 1-2-3 7th. He retired 12 batters in a row.

It was a good thing Luca was so strong because Clemson wasn't giving the Heels bats much to work with- from the 3rd to the 7th they only had two base runners, and they both came on 2 out singles.

Luca exited after the first 2 Clemson hitters in the 8th reached to put runners on the corners with nobody out. He struck out 8 over 7 innings and if you took out the 2nd it was an almost impeccable outing.

Brett Daniels came in and retired the side, although a sac fly did allow the runner on 3rd to come home and extend the Tiger lead to 4-1.

In the bottom of the 8th Logan Warmoth hit a 1 out single.

Then Ashton McGee hit a single too to put runners on 1st and 2nd. A wild pitch moved them to 2nd and 3rd.

Kyle Datres hit an infield single to bring Logan home and put runners on the corners. 4-2.

Brandon Riley singled to right to send Ashton home and put runners on 1st and 2nd. 4-3.

Cody Roberts singled through the left side to score Kyle. 4-4. There was no big blow but 5 singles in a row tied the game.

Tyler Lynn walked to load the bases. And because we never made an out in the sequence that started with Logan's single, a Zack Gahagan fly ball to left was enough to bring Brandon home and give the Heels a 5-4 lead.

Josh Hiatt came in for the 9th. Just to review, in 2017, Josh struck out 64 guys and gave up 31 hits with a 1.90 ERA in 52 innings. Striking out more than twice as many guys as get hits is a pretty amazing accomplishment.

No hits off Josh Hiatt on this day. The 9th went strike out, ground out, strike out. Game over, top 5 series won, Josh's 13th save of the season. 8 consecutive ACC series wins to start conference play.

The Heels were shut out in 13 of 16 innings the first two days of the series. But a 5 run 7th Friday and a 4 run 8th Saturday were enough to get the wins.

Zack Gahagan (who also drove in the winning run), Kyle Datres, and Brandon Riley each had a pair of hits for the Heels. Tyler Lynn's early double to get a run back in the 2nd was their only extra base hit of the day. The win gave the Heels an 18-5 record in ACC play.

-On April 29th, 2018 the Heels already had their first series win in Raleigh since 2007, and were going for their first sweep ever at State- ranked #2 in the country- since the ACC started doing 3 game weekend series in 1990.

Dallas Tessar set the tone by doubling on the very first pitch of the game. After a fielder's choice, Kyle Datres drew a walk and Brandon Riley singled to load the bases with 1 out. An Ike Freeman sac fly gave the Heels a 1-0 lead. It was a close, hard play at the plate and the teams visited with each other on the field briefly before things calmed down.

Clemente Inclan walked to load the bases again and a wild pitch brought Kyle home and gave the Heels a 2-0 advantage.

State got one back in the 2nd and the Heels went to the bullpen quickly. Caden O'Brien inherited a runner on 1st with nobody out and retired the side without letting him come home

In the top of the 3rd the Heels got the run back. Michael Busch got hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, Kyle Datres bunted him into scoring position, and a Brandon Riley grounder moved him over to 3rd with 2 out. Ike Freeman hit one back up the middle to bring him around and get the Heels lead back to 3-1.

State got runners to 2nd and 3rd in the 3rd but Caden stranded them there, then threw a scoreless 4th.

In the top of the 5th Kyle reached on a 1 out error. Brandon Riley singled, Kyle headed for 3rd, State tried to throw him out, he was safe, and Brandon moved to 2nd on the throw.

Brandon taking that extra base proved to be key. Ike grounded out to 1st, bringing in Kyle to make it 4-1. And with 2 out Ben Casparius singled up the middle to bring Brandon home and make it 5-1. That was just the tip of the iceberg of Ben's appearance in the game.

State got a couple runs back in the bottom of the 5th and Caden left the game but the 4 innings he pitched were huge after the starter didn't make it out of the 2nd.

The rest of the game the Heels did a lot of bending but not breaking. Rodney Hutchison came in and hit and then walked a batter to put 2 on with 1 out in the 6th. He fell behind the next guy 2-0 but got it to a full count, then struck him out on the 8th pitch of the at bat after a couple foul balls. He struck out the next guy too to end the inning.

The 7th was a similar story. State got the first 2 guys on thanks to a single and a walk. A FC put runners on the corners with 1 down and Rodney fell behind 3-1 to the next guy. But he ended up getting a fly out and then a ground out from the next guy to get out of the inning.

In the 8th Rodney left after giving up a leadoff double. Ben Casparius had driven in our last run and now he came in to pitch. He'd come in Friday night after barely pitching all year and gotten the win after throwing a scoreless inning. The Pack moved the runner to 3rd on a sac fly but then Ben struck out the next guy to leave him there for the second out of the inning. The Heels were almost out of the threat but then Ben threw a wild pitch and he came home to make it 5-4 before a fly ball to right ended the inning.

Ben got the first 2 outs in the 9th. But then he delivered a 4 pitch walk. Then after a full count and a foul ball he walked the next guy on the 7th pitch of the at bat. And the next guy also worked a full count and hit a foul ball and then drew a walk after 7 pitches. 2 grueling at bats that didn't go Ben's way, and the bases were loaded.

Ben fell behind 2-0 to the next guy and it really felt like after an amazing weekend the Heels were finally going to run out of luck. But Ben threw a called strike. And then he got a swinging strike to even the count. Finally a fly ball to right stranded all the base runners where they were and gave the Heels their first series sweep in Raleigh since...ever. Ben got a save to go with his win from Friday night in his unexpected big pitching weekend.

The Heels had gotten off to sort of a slow start to the season but now they were 13-2 with three sweeps over their last 5 conference series and firmly back in the national seed picture- especially after sweeping the 2nd ranked team in the country on the road. Caden got the win for his 4 innings of work to push his record to 4-0 on the season.

Ike Freeman only had 1 hit but led the offense by driving in 3 runs in 3 different ways- a sac fly, a single, and a groundout. Brandon Riley and Zack Gahagan each had a pair of hits and just like the 2007 version of the team the Heels headed into the exam break off a high note weekend in Raleigh.

And finally a quick hit from 2006:

-The Heels clinched the series over Duke with an 8-2 win in Durham. Chad Flack had a monster day- 4 hits, including 2 home runs and a double, driving in 4 and scoring 3 times. Tim Federowicz had 3 hits, including a pair of doubles. Benji Johnson also had a couple hits.

Robert Woodard had his typical great outing, going 8 innings and allowing only 2 runs. Tyler Trice threw a scoreless 9th to close it out.

What I really remember about this game though has to do with Coach Williams. Coach Williams has been great about coming to Omaha and they always show him on TV and talk about how great it is that he supports the baseball team. But I think a lot of schools' football and basketball coaches show up when the team makes it to Omaha.

On this day in 2006, the Heels had not been to Omaha in 17 years though. Duke's on campus baseball stadium, where this game was, has very little seating.

Roy and Wanda Williams came to the game. A regular season game for a team that had not been to Omaha in 17 years. And sat in the grass on a blanket down the 1B line. Sitting in the grass at a regular season baseball game to support one of your school's other sports. Now *that* is a supporting your school's baseball team. You see who people really are when there are no cameras there to capture it. 14 years later I haven't forgotten that gesture of support, and I don't think I ever will.