Baseball Closes Out Regular Season Against Florida State

Thursday, May 19

Chapel Hill

6 p.m.

North Carolina

Florida State

Photo by: HELEN MCGINNIS

May 19, 2022 | Baseball

By: Jody Jones

North Carolina will close out the regular season this weekend against No. 20 Florida State. The Seminoles have won each of the last two series against UNC, taking two of three in Tallahassee last season and two of three in Chapel Hill in 2018. Carolina's last series victory was a 2017 sweep at Dick Hows Stadium.

Carolina and FSU have each won their last two ACC series with the Heels taking two of three from NC State and Wake Forest, while the Noles captured series against Boston College and Miami.

UNC had its midweek game against UNCW canceled due to travel difficulties for the Seahawks, while the Seminoles lost to Florida on Tuesday night in Gainesville.

The Diamond Heels are 7-2 since the calendar flipped to May, while Florida State is 6-4 this month.

PITCHING MATCHUP

	Thurday \| 6 p.m. (ACCNX)	Friday \| 6 p.m. (ACCNX)	Saturday \| 2 p.m. (ACCNX)
Florida State	RHP Carson Montgomery	LHP Patrick Messick	LHP Bryce Hubbart
North Carolina	RHP Max Carlson	LHP Brandon Schaeffer	TBA
Links	WATCH \| LISTEN \| STATS	WATCH \| LISTEN \| STATS	WATCH \| LISTEN \| STATS

UNC TO HONOR COACH FOX
North Carolina will honor its former head baseball coach Mike Fox prior to game two of the Florida State series on Friday, May 20. The ceremony will begin at approximately 5:30 p.m. and will include a video and a special presentation from Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz and Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham. A 1978 UNC graduate, Fox concluded his 37-year head coaching career with a 1,487-547-5 record, a winning percentage of .731. He is the winningest coach in Carolina Baseball history and led UNC to seven of its 11 CWS appearances. His Tar Heel teams went 948-406-1, won ACC championships.

SENIOR SERIES
Seniors Gage Gillian, Clemente Inclan, Mikey Madej, Caden O'Brien and graduate Shaddon Peavyhouse are each playing their final series at Boshamer Stadium this weekend and will be recognized in a pregame ceremony on Saturday. Juniors Connor Ollio, Nik Pry, Will Sandy, Danny Serretti and Angel Zarate along with sophomore Davis Palermo, each earned their bachelor's degrees this spring and will also be recognized as part of the pregame ceremony.

DIAMOND HEEL HITTERS ON A TEAR
• Junior shortstop Danny Serretti is one of the Diamond Heels' hottest hitters. He has hit safely in 24 consecutive games, batting .483 (42x97) with two home runs and 18 RBIs during his streak. He collected 11 total hits in five games last week, batting .579. At the end of the Miami series on March 27, Serretti was hitting .296. In the 26 games that have followed, he has raised his batting average 70 points to .366. Serretti has also drawn 19 walks during his current streak.
• Sophomore Mac Horvath has hit safely in 11 of the last 13 games, batting .372 (19x51) with 18 runs scored and 12 RBIs during that time frame. Twelve of his 15 home runs this season have come in the last 25 games. At the end of March he was batting .189 and has raised his average 70 points the last 25 games, hitting .320 with an OPS of 1.214.
• Freshman Vance Honeycutt was inserted into the No. 4 spot in the lineup of the rubber games against NC State and has hit from that position in each of the last six games. During those three games as the cleanup hitter, he is 11-for-22 with four home runs, two doubles and a triple. He also drove in 10 runs, scored 10 and stole four bases.
• Sophomore designated hitter Alberto Osuna has driven in a run in 15 of the last 21 games and has 26 total RBIs in those games after collecting 17 RBIs in the first 29 games of the season.
• Since the start of the 2020 season, Angel Zarate has reached base safely in 111 of 119 games played. He has hit safely in 43 of 50 games this season with a team-high 24 multi-hit games.

HONEYCUTT NAMED ACC CO-PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Honeycutt was named ACC Co-Player of the Week along Wake Forest designated hitter Jake Reinisch, league officials announced Monday. Honeycutt, a native of Salisbury, led UNC to a 4-1 week that included wins over Gardner-Webb and Charleston Southern and a 2-1 series win over Wake Forest to earn the first weekly accolade of his career. He hit .474 (9-for-19) over the five-game stretch and homered in each of the first three contests. Five of his nine hits went for extra bases as he closed the week with seven RBI and six runs scored. He recorded career highs with four hits and three stolen bases versus Gardner-Webb; he has 15 total home runs and 27 stolen bases on the year.