This Day In Tar Heel Baseball History: May 25

Ashton McGee in the 2019 Boston College game

Photo by: Joe Bray

May 25, 2020 | Baseball

By: Tom Jensen

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

May 25
For today's version of 'This Day in Recent Carolina Baseball History' we go back to 2013 and 2019 for the most epic game in the history of the NC State rivalry, and an emphatic win in the ACC Tournament semifinals. Plus a quick hit from 2018.

On May 25, 2013 the Heels and the Wolfpack played for the right to advance to the ACC Championship the next day. There was a lot of hype around the game- both teams were in the top 5 in the country and the crowd in Durham was the largest ever for a college baseball game in North Carolina. The Heels and Wolfpack had been featured on the cover of Baseball America together all the way back in the winter for the college season preview. People knew from the get go that this was going to be a big year for both programs and the seasons for the teams lived up to the hype. So did the game.

Hobbs Johnson was on the mound for the Heels against Carlos Rodon for the Wolfpack. The following month they would face off against each other on an even bigger stage. Hobbs threw a 1-2-3 1st, including a strikeout of the always fearsome Trea Turner to start his day. He followed it up with a 1-2-3 2nd, a scoreless 3rd featuring another strikeout of Turner, and a scoreless 4th.

Hobbs was cruising. But through the first 5 innings the Heels didn't have any hits. In the bottom of the 5th State really threatened to take control of the game. They got back to back singles to lead off the inning, and then a wild pitch put runners on 2nd and 3rd with just one out.

A walk loaded the bases and brought Trea Turner to the plate. But Hobbs just seemed to have his number that day and struck him out for the third time, this one on three pitches. Jake Fincher fell behind 0-2, took a couple balls, fouled off a couple pitches, took another ball to make the count full and then got rung up looking on the 8th pitch of the at bat to end the threat.

State finally got a run in the 6th and Trent Thornton came in with a runner on 2nd and 1 out. Hobbs finished his day striking out 9 in 5.1 innings where he allowed only the one run. Trent struck out the first 2 Wolfpack hitters he faced to end the threat.

In the 7th Cody Stubbs finally hit a single to break up Rodon's no hitter, but the Heels couldn't get him across. Trent threw a 1-2-3 7th.

In the 8th Mike Zolk drew a 1 out walk and moved to 2nd on a wild pitch. Parks Jordan hit a ball to 3rd and the Pack defender couldn't handle it, the error giving the Heels runners on 1st and 2nd. Chaz Frank hit the ball back to Rodon and he threw it away. That allowed Zoom to come in and score to tie the game, even though the Heels didn't have any hits in the inning.

Trent threw a scoreless 8th and a scoreless 9th, in both cases only allowing the Pack a 2 out walk. Carlos Rodon finally came out after 10 innings where he struck out 14 and only allowed 1 hit. It's probably the best performance I've ever seen for an opposing pitcher against the Heels but there was one statistic the outing didn't enhance for him- his win total.

Trent threw a 1-2-3 10th. And a 1-2-3 11th. And a 1-2-3 12th. As amazing as Rodon was he might not have been the best pitcher in the game- Trent finished his day going 6.2 innings with 7 strikeouts and allowing no hits. It was one of the most incredible relief appearances in the history of the program.

Chris McCue came on for the 13th and the Pack got a single and a walk to lead off the inning. A bunt moved them up to 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. It looked the Heels luck was finally going to run out. The next hitter was given an intentional pass but then Chris struck out the next guy on 3 pitches for the second out of the inning.

That brought Brett Williams to the plate for State. He got ahead 1-0, a strike evened the count, another ball put him ahead 2-1, and another strike evened the count. He fouled off a pitch. And then he fouled off another pitch. And then he fouled off another pitch. He took ball 3. And on the 9th pitch of the at bat, when a ball would have ended the game, Chris struck him out swinging to send it on to the 14th.

State again had the lead runner reach in the 14th, this time on an error. A bunt moved him to second and a grounder moved him to 3rd with 2 outs. The Heels gave Trea Turner an intentional pass. And Chris got Jake Fincher to fly out to right and continue the game to the 15th.

Chris threw a 1-2-3 15th to finish his outing with 3 scoreless innings and only 1 hit allowed. Next the Heels went to Chris Munnelly. I don't know that the Heels have had a pitcher in recent history who contributed in as many different ways as Chris. He put in time as a weekend starter, he put in time as a midweek starter, he put in time as a long reliever, he put in time as a late inning reliever. Any role you can fill on a pitching staff he filled at some time or another during his 4 years in the program.

And he got better every year. He went from a 5.40 ERA his freshman year to a 4.09 one his sophomore year to a 3.61 one his junior year to a 2.39 one his senior year. That kind of marked year by year improvement is a clear sign of hard work. His senior year he went 6-0 and struck out 63 in 60.1 innings while allowing only 36 hits. He may get lost in the shuffle sometimes because that team was so full of stars, but he was a key piece of the 2013 team's accomplishments.

Chris retired the Wolfpack 1-2-3 in the 16th, striking out the side. In the bottom of the 17th State got a couple of 2 out hits and an intentional walk loaded the bases, again putting them within a walk or a wild pitch of winning the game. But Chris got a foulout to 3rd and the game continued to the 18th.

Landon Lassiter drew a walk to cap a hard fought 7 pitch at bat to lead off the 18th and Colin Moran got hit by a pitch to put runners on 1st and 2nd with no one out. Skye Bolt laid down a bunt and State went to 2nd for the first out of the inning, allowing Landon to advance to 3rd. Cody Stubbs fell behind 0-2, took a couple of balls, and then singled to center to bring in Landon and give the Heels a 2-1 lead.

Now Chris just had to set down the Wolfpack one final time. But they hit a leadoff double, and then a wild pitch advanced the runner to 3rd with no one out. The Heels had waited hours and hours and hours to take the lead and now it looked like they were going to lose it in the blink of an eye.

The next hitter went ahead 3-1 and the chances for State getting the lead runner on base with nobody out too looked pretty good. But Chris battled back with a strike and on the next pitch the hitter sent a flyball out to right, not deep enough to score the run. 1 out. The next hitter got ahead 2-1 but then Chris got him to foul a ball off and then pop up to 2nd. 2 out.

Logan Ratledge came to the plate. The first pitch came in for strike one. The next one was a ball. And then at 1:51 AM, 6 hours and 3 minutes after the game started, Ratledge grounded out to 3rd to end the game and give the Heels an epic 2–1 win and advance to the ACC title game...less than 12 hours later!

Chris got the most memorable win of his Carolina career, pushing his record to 6-0 on the season, for his 3 scoreless innings of work. All 4 Heels pitchers threw at least 3 innings and all were very effective to make the win possible.

The Heels only had 6 hits across the 18 innings. Chaz Frank had 3 of them, including a double. Cody Stubbs had a pair, including the only hit off Carlos Rodon in his 10 innings and the game winning RBI in the 18th. Skye Bolt had the other Heels hit.

The game's outcome was sort of emblematic of Carlos Rodon's career against UNC. His performances were always epic- but his team ended up going 2-4 against the Heels in his career starts. His presence seemed to inspire our pitchers to rise to the challenge. The win made the Heels 51-8 on the season.

On May 25, 2019 the Heels were coming off dramatic extra inning wins against both Virginia and Miami to keep their ACC Tournament- and regional hosting- hopes alive. Their semifinal game against Boston College featured a lot less late inning excitement.

Will Sandy threw a 1-2-3 1st and in the bottom of the inning Dylan Harris and Michael Busch drew back to back walks. An Aaron Sabato groundout moved them both up a base and another grounder by Danny Serretti had the same effect, bringing Dylan home to give the Heels a 1-0 lead. On the next pitch Ike Freeman singled to left to score Michael to give the Heels a 2-0 lead.

Boston College got one back in the 2nd before Will threw a scoreless 3rd. Michael Busch doubled to lead off the bottom of the inning and Aaron Sabato followed with a single to put runners on the corners with no one out. A wild pitch brought Michael home to make it 3-1. Danny Serretti and Ike Freeman each walked to load the bases, and an Ashton McGee sac fly brought Aaron home to push the lead to 4-1.

The Eagles got runners on the corners with nobody out to start their 4th and Caden O'Brien came in. The first guy he faced hit a foul pop out that became a double play when the runner on 3rd got caught up between there and home. Another pop out ended the threat and Caden set down the Eagles 1-2-3 in the 5th.

Danny Serretti walked, Ike Freeman singled, and Dylan Enwiller walked to load the bases with 2 outs in the 5th. Dallas Tessar came up with a big time single to left that was going to score a pair anyway and then the fielder misplayed it, clearing the bases and upping the Heels lead to 7-1.

The Eagles got right back into the game with 4 runs in the 6th. They still had 2 runners on base and a chance to take the lead when Josh Dotson got a line out to end the threat.

In the bottom half of the inning the Heels struck right back. Michael Busch led off the inning and singled and went to 2nd on a wild pitch and Aaron Sabato got hit by a pitch. Danny Serretti hit the first pitch he saw down the right field line for a triple that brought in a pair of runs and extended the lead back to 9-5. Ike Freeman followed with a single to score Danny and make it 10-5.

Boston College loaded the bases with 2 outs in the 7th but Hansen Butler came on and got a line out to end the threat. He also threw a 1-2-3 8th with a pair of strikeouts and ended up earning his third win of the season to pair with the save he'd earned the day before. After staying in the program through 5 years of injury and frustration Hansen deserved these big moments and his weekend wasn't done yet!

In the bottom of the 8th the Heels got a final little batch of insurance. Brandon Martorano drew a leadoff walk and Dylan Enwiller bunted him over to 2nd. Dylan Harris singled to score Brandon and make it 11-5 and then Michael Busch went deep for the second day in a row to make it 13-5.

Andrew Grogan came in for the 9th and threw a scoreless inning to give the Heels a 13-5 win and send them on to the championship game.

The late semifinal was State against Georgia Tech and imagining that the Wolfpack would probably win I spent the first couple hours or so after the game somewhat frantically doing whatever I could to get the word out to Tar Heel nation that they needed to go ahead and buy tickets before State won so that they wouldn't buy them all up and make it a de facto home game for themselves the next day, since their fans would have gone into the ACC Tournament expecting to play Sunday and outs, given what trouble we'd had the last two weekends of the regular season, wouldn't have been expecting to.

As it turned out Georgia Tech won and the concern of playing a 'road game' in Durham was allayed. But since we had sold a lot of tickets, we ended up with a pretty good pro Tar Heel atmosphere at the DBAP the next day for the championship instead!

Michael Busch led the way for the Heels with 4 hits, including a home run and a double, and scored 4 runs and drove in a pair. Ike Freeman had 3 hits, drove in a pair of runs, and scored one. Danny Serretti (including a triple, 3 RBI, and a run) and Dallas Tessar (including 2 RBI) each had a pair of hits. Dylan Harris singled, scored twice, and drove in a run and Aaron Sabato singled and scored twice.

The Heels came into the weekend reeling. After a couple closely fought wins and a blowout they earned the opportunity to win an ACC title and a likely date in Chapel Hill for the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament the next day.

And a quick hit from 2018:

-The Heels lost their opening game of the 2018 ACC Tournament to Pittsburgh, eliminating them from title contention. But they still had a lot to play for in their final tournament game against Georgia Tech because they were very much on the bubble for a national seed and needed to do anything they could to impress the selection committee.

They came up big with a 9-0 win that did indeed help earn them the right to play at home all the way to Omaha. Luca Dalatri started in only his second appearance since returning from injury and was masterful, going 5 shutout innings while striking out 8 and allowing only 2 hits and a walk. Austin Bergner threw 2.1 scoreless innings while striking out 4, Joey Lancellotti came in with 2 runners on base in the 8th and got the final 2 outs to preserve the shutout, and Rodney Hutchison threw a 1-2-3 9th. The Heels pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts while allowing only 4 hits.

Michael Busch, including a pair of doubles, 3 runs, and an RBI led the way for the Heels with 3 hits. Brandon Martorano (including a home run, 3 RBI, and a run), Zack Gahagan (including a home run, 2 RBI, and a run), and Kyle Datres (including a double and 2 runs) each had a pair of hits. Jackson Hesterlee had a double and Brandon Riley singled and drove in and scored a run to round out the hitting for the Heels. The win made them 38-18 for the season heading into selection day.