No. 18 UNC Completes Sweep of Clemson with 5-3 Win

Sunday, March 14

Chapel Hill, N.C.

1 PM

North Carolina

10-4, 0

Clemson

5-8, 0

Clemson

North Carolina

March 14, 2021 | Baseball

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By: Aury St. Germain

CHAPEL HILL – Behind a career-outing from RHP Max Alba, No. 18 North Carolina (10-4, 6-3) completed a series sweep against Clemson (5-8, 1-5) with a 5-3 win on a picture-perfect Sunday afternoon on Bryson Field at Boshamer Stadium.

The series sweep was the Tar Heels' first against Clemson since the 2017 season, when UNC took three-straight against the Tigers in Chapel Hill.

Game three followed the same trend as the previous two- Clemson claimed an early lead before North Carolina came from behind to win.

Clemson hit a two-run home run in the first inning to take the initial lead, but North Carolina answered with a five-spot in the bottom of the first.

Alba started the contest and set career highs for innings pitched (7.2) and strikeouts (9). After giving up the home run in the first frame, he retired the next 22 of 24 batters he faced which included a stretch of 14-straight Tigers.

UNC's five-run first inning was ignited by Angel Zarate, who drew a walk and reached base for the 34^th-straight game. Justice Thompson followed with a single and eventually reached third after a stolen base and a throwing error.

Caleb Roberts plated Thompson with a sacrifice fly to deep center field.

The Tar Heels tied the contest with an RBI double off of the bat of Danny Serretti. During the ensuing at-bat, Clemente Inclan belted his fourth home run in as many games to put to the Tar Heels up 4-2. Inclan became the first Tar Heel to homer in four-straight games since Michael Busch accomplished the feat April 12-16.

Carolina took a 5-2 lead when Tomas Frick smoked an RBI double down the left-field line to score Will Stewart, who earned his second-straight start as the Tar Heels' designated hitter.

Clemson threated in the eighth inning after loading the bases but was only able to plate one run, a hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded.

Caden O'Brien earned his second save of 2021 after throwing 1.1 innings of hitless, scoreless baseball.

North Carolina prepares for a four-game road swing at Liberty on Tuesday. First pitch is slated for 4 p.m.

Postgame Quotes

Head Coach Scott Forbes
On the progress of Clemente Inclan
In a world where everybody wants to take the easy road, especially with transfer portal, Clem (Inclan) could have been out of here and been starting somewhere probably a year ago because he's a talented kid, but our lineup is sometimes hard to crack. He is a phenomenal teammate, always in every single pitch, but just really works. He's gotten so strong and worked hard with Coach Wierzbicki where his swing plays more. If you make mistakes now with him, and he finds the barrel, it's gonna go. Opposite field, he's hitting home runs everywhere, not just pull side. He's become more of a complete hitter and he's worked his way to become more of a defensive third baseman where we can do more than just DH him. I can't tell you how much joy it brings all of us as coaches to see Clem succeed because he is just the ultimate teammate and just a phenomenal kid to be able to coach. I just love coaching him.

Outfielder Justice Thompson
On what was learned after losses at Virginia Tech and to Liberty
Resilience. You know, we had to bounce back. We didn't have the weekend we wanted at VT. We didn't have the mid-week we wanted against Liberty. We just kept our head down and went to work. We knew this series would be big, ACC series with Clemson, and everybody bought in, trusted the process, and it ended up in our favor.

RHP Max Alba
On settling down after giving up a home run in the first inning
Obviously not the most ideal start, but I do feel like once I settled in I was all around the zone the whole day. You know, feeling good, playing loose. I had guys making plays behind me so that's all I could ask for.