Late Rally Falls Short At No. 8 Notre Dame

Saturday, May 1

South Bend, Ind.

2 PM

North Carolina

20-20, 14-15

Notre Dame

23-8, 20-8

North Carolina

Notre Dame

Photo by: Rebecca Lawson

May 1, 2021 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Aury St. Germain

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – North Carolina scored 10 runs in final three innings, but the rally fell just short as the Tar Heels (20-20, 14-15) fell 13-12 to No. 6 Notre Dame in game two of the three-game set.

Down 12-2 after six innings, UNC scored three in the seventh, six runs in the eighth, and one in the ninth frame to trim the Irish lead to one run.

Dallas Tessar led North Carolina at the plate and turned in a career-best four hits (four-for-five) with two doubles, a home run and four RBI.

He became the first Tar Heel to record four hits since Colby Wilkerson did so against Duke on April 12, 2021 against Duke.

After Notre Dame took a 1-0 lead in the first inning with an RBI double, the Tar Heels responded with an RBI groundout to tie the game in the second frame. After Angel Zarate led off the inning with a single and Danny Serretti followed with a double, Tomas Frick plated his 12^th run of the season to even the score.

The Irish answered with a four-run second inning to retake the lead with a pair of 2RBI singles up the middle. Notre Dame added two more runs in the fourth inning with its third 2RBI single of the afternoon.

Caleb Roberts plated the Tar Heel's second run of the ballgame with an RBI single through the right side that scored Tessar.

Notre Dame put together a three-run fifth inning and a two-run sixth inning to extend its lead to 10 runs after six innings, 12-2.

Tessar launched his fourth home run of the season in the seventh inning, a two-run shot to left field, to cut the Irish lead to eight. Zarate followed Tessar with an RBI single to plate Roberts and give Carolina its third run of the frame.

The Tar Heels continued to put pressure on Notre Dame and scored six runs in the eighth.

With the bases loaded, Wilkerson scored on a balk by the Notre Dame hurler. Tessar roped a double to score Mac Horvath before Johnny Castagnozzi crossed home on a wild pitch.

Angel Zarate mashed a three-run home run to cut the lead to just one run.

After the Irish added a run in the eighth on a Tar Heel error, Max Riemer collected his first hit in Carolina Blue to lead off the ninth frame- a solo home run to right field to cut the lead to one.

The game ended there, as UNC fell just short after the late-game heroics.

Shawn Rapp started the game on the mound for the Tar Heels and pitched 1.2 innings and surrendered six hits and five earned runs.

Caleb Cozart saw the most action on the bump for the Tar Heels with 3.1 innings pitched. He struck out three batters and just issued one walk, but allowed six hits and five earned runs.

Carolina returns to the diamond for the series finale tomorrow at 1 p.m.