This Day In Tar Heel Baseball History: May 14

Connor Ollio started the 2019 High Point game

Photo by: Joe Bray

May 14, 2020 | Baseball

By: Tom Jensen

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.

May 14
For today's version of 'This Day in Recent Carolina Baseball History' we go back to 2013 and 2017 for a midweek one hitter and for quite an emphatic series clincher in Blacksburg to make it 9-0 on ACC weekends for the Heels. Plus a quick hit from 2019.

On May 14, 2013 the Heels hosted Appalachian State in their last midweek game of the year. Reilly Hovis was on the hill and he was on his game that day. The Mountaineers got a 2 out single in the 1st inning. And thus concluded their hitting for the day. Reilly got a harmless flyball to left on the next pitch to end the inning.

Then he threw a scoreless 2nd with a couple of strikeouts. And a 1-2-3 3rd.

In the bottom half of the inning Mike Zolk hit a leadoff single to get things started. Parks Jordan reached on an error and Chaz Frank got hit by a pitch to load the bases with nobody out. Landon Lassiter hit a fly ball so deep to center that not only did it score Zoom, it moved Parks and Chaz up a base as well. The Heels led 1-0.

Reilly threw a scoreless 4th and then a 1-2-3 5th to finish his day with 5 shutout innings where he allowed just the 1 hit. Reilly really was a tremendous pitcher his freshman and sophomore years. He had a 2.29 ERA and struck out 107 guys in 98.1 innings while allowing only 64 hits. His career record was 14-1.

Unfortunately he got hurt his junior year. If he hadn't I think he would have gone pretty high in the draft and if you add him to a pitching staff that already had Trent Thornton, Benton Moss, Trevor Kelley, Zac Gallen, and JB Bukauskas it's easy to see a world where you win another 5 games and are closer to hosting a regional than missing the NCAA tournament. But those are the breaks. We were lucky to get to see Reilly at his peak for a couple years, including this night.

Chris McCue came in for the 6th and struck out the side, all of them swinging. In the bottom half of the inning Cody Stubbs drew a leadoff walk and stole 2nd, Michael Russell bunted him up to 3rd, and Brian Holberton brought him in on a grounder to give the Heels a 2-0 lead.

Chris McCue threw a 1-2-3 7th and then a scoreless 8th punctuated with a strikeout. His outing was 3 shutout innings, 5 strikeouts, no hits allowed.

I've written a lot about Chris Munnelly's versatility and how he went back and forth between starting and relieving depending on how he was needed throughout his Tar Heel career.

On this particular night he came in for the 9th. After a couple strikeouts and a pop out to end the game the Heels had a 2-0 win and Chris had the second save of his varied and successful career. The combined one hitter pushed the Heels record to 46-6 for the season.

Mike Zolk had a pair of hits for the Heels, including the one that started their first run scoring rally. Cody Stubbs also had a single and scored a run, Skye Bolt had a hit, and Brian Holberton had an RBI.

On May 14, 2017 the Heels played their first game as Coastal Division champs. It is pretty hard to build a 5 game lead through 25 games of a 30 game conference season. Even with all the great teams we've had over the last couple decades none of them had clinched the division with this many games left to play.

Nevertheless they still had plenty to play for that Sunday in Blacksburg. They had won their first 8 ACC series and after splitting a double header the day before they needed to win to keep that streak going.

And o did they win and keep the streak going...

Taylor Sugg started for the Heels and threw a 1-2-3 1st. In the bottom half Brandon Riley walked and stole second, and Zack Gahagan walked too. With 2 outs Brian Miller doubled to right center to bring them both home. Logan Warmoth singled to move Brian to 3rd and keep the inning going and an error brought him in to give the Heels a 3-0 lead.

Taylor threw a scoreless 2nd with a couple of strikeouts. In the 3rd Tyler Lynn hit a leadoff single and stole 2nd. Cody Roberts singled to move him to 3rd and an error allowed him to come home and give the Heels a 4-0 advantage.

Taylor threw a scoreless 3rd and got the first couple outs in the 4th to finish his day with 3.2 scoreless innings. Brett Daniels came in with the bases loaded in what was still a plausibly competitive game, got ahead in the count 0-2, and forced a groundout to end the threat.

Brett also threw a scoreless 5th and then in the 6th the Heels really started hitting. Zack Gahagan drew a leadoff walk and Michael Busch bunted him over. Brian Miller doubled on the first pitch he saw to bring him home and make it 5-0.

Logan Warmoth singled on the next pitch and Ashton McGee drew a walk to load the bases. Kyle Datres walked. 6-0. Tyler Lynn walked. 7-0. Brandon Riley walked. 8-0.

That brought up Zack Gahagan for the second time in the inning and he was ready for some variety. He got to the same 3 ball count everyone else was getting to...and then he doubled to left center to clear the bases, giving the Heels an 11-0 lead after a 7 run 6th.

Brett threw a 1-2-3 6th. He got the win for 2.1 scoreless innings of work, pushing his record to 5-0 on the season.

You know what's even more fun than a 7 run inning? Back to back 7 run innings!

Ashton McGee walked to lead off the 7th and then Kyle Datres parked one. 13-0.

Cody Roberts walked and then Zack Gahagan parked one. 15-0.

Ike Freeman walked, Brian Miller singled, and then Logan Warmoth parked one. 18-0. Two 7 run innings in a row.

Jason Morgan threw a scoreless 7th. The Heels decided to give the Hokie pitchers a break in the 8th. Bo Weiss threw a scoreless bottom frame.

In the 9th Brian Miller singled and Adam Pate drew a walk. Ashton McGee singled to bring in Brian. 19-0. Kyle Datres singled to bring in Adam. 20-0.

The late Zach Attianese threw a 1-2-3 9th and it was a 20-0 final to win- and I mean REALLY win- their 9th ACC series in a row for the Heels. Duke was up next for the final weekend in the Heels' effort to make it 10 for 10.

Brian Miller had 5 hits, including a pair of doubles, and scored 4 and drove in 3. Logan Warmoth (including a home run, 3 RBI and 2 runs) and Ashton McGee (including 2 runs and an RBI) each had 3 hits. Zack Gahagan had a home run, a double, a couple walks, drove in 5 runs, and scored 3 times. Kyle Datres had a pair of hits, including a home run, drove in 4 and scored 2 times.

The Heels had 18 hits in total and drew 15 walks. The win pushed them to 41-10 on the season but even more impressively 21-6 in ACC play.

And a quick hit from 2019:

-The Heels beat High Point 7-0, throwing a combined one hit shutout, in their last midweek game of the year. Dylan Harris (including a double, 3 runs, and 2 RBI), Aaron Sabato (including a double and 2 RBI), and Danny Serretti (including 2 RBI) each had a pair of hits. Jackson Hesterlee tripled and scored a run and Ashton McGee doubled and both drove in and scored a run.

Connor Ollio got the win on the predetermined staff day for 3.2 scoreless, hitless innings of work. Hansen Butler threw 1.1 scoreless innings, followed by 1.1 scoreless innings for Caden O'Brien. Josh Dotson got a couple outs, Andrew Grogan threw a scoreless 8th, Joey Lancellotti struck out the first couple guys in the 9th, and Kyle Blendinger got the final out to finish the one hit shutout.