Photo by: ANTHONY SORBELLINI
Baseball Begins Five-Game Week At Charlotte
March 14, 2023 | Baseball
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - No. 18 North Carolina plays outside the friendly confines of Boshamer Stadium for only the second time this season as it ventures west to Charlotte to take on the the homestanding 49ers on Tuesday before returning home to face High Point Wednesday afternoon.
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The Tar Heels are coming off an 8-3 homestand that ended with a 6-0 win over No. 17 Virginia on Saturday in the back end of a doubleheader. Junior college transfers Jake Knapp and Matt Poston combined to toss a five-hit shutout to send the Cavaliers to their first loss of the season behind the bat of Mac Horvath, who drove in three runs and hit his eighth home run of the season. Johnny Castagnozzi blasted his first homer of the year and Carolina shut out Virginia for the first time since 2011.
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BULLPEN HAS BEEN ON CUE: In 15.0 innings pitched in three games against Virginia over the weekend, six Carolina relievers combined for 20 strikeouts against five walks with a 2.40 ERA ... Will Sandy (7) and Kevin Eaise (9) combined to strike out 16 Cavaliers Friday night in 6.1 innings ... Matt Poston tossed 4.2 scoreless innings with three strikeouts to earn the win over UVA on Saturday ... The Cavaliers were a mere 6-of-31 (.195) against the Tar Heels bullpen with runners on base ... Nelson Berkwich and Cameron Padgett are tied for second in the ACC with eight appearances each, while Ben Peterson and Matt Poston are tied for 10th with seven appearances ... Poston leads the Tar Heels with five games finished ... Of the six UNC pitchers that have thrown five or more innings of relief, five of them are holding opposing hitters under a .232 batting average ... Opponents are hitting a mere .087 against Poston and .189 versus Cameron Padgett ... Of the 10 pitchers to throw at least 3.0 innings out of the bullpen, seven of them are averaging more than a strikeout per inning ... Freshman Matthew Matthijs is averaging 2.21 and graduate Will Sandy is averaging 1.9 strikeouts per inning out of the bullpen. Kevin Eaise (1.67), Nik Pry (1.5) Nelson Berkwich (1.4), Dalton Pence (1.3) and Ben Peterson (1.1) are also averaging more than a strikeout per inning.
BOSH BOMBERS: The Tar Heels are tied for 14th nationally in home runs with 33, which tied for third-most in the ACC behind Wake Forest (36) and NC State (35), and alongside Miami (33) ... After hitting 101 home runs last season, UNC is on pace to hit 108 home runs in 2023, which would tie the school record set by the 2002 squad ... By comparison, the 2022 Diamond Heels hit 19 home runs in their first 17 games ... UNC is one of six DI teams to have at least four players with five home runs (Horvath 8, Van De Brake 6, Frick 6, Honeycutt 5) ... South Carolina and Florida Gulf Coast each have five players with five or more home runs, while Florida, UCF and Toledo join the Heels with four players ... The Tar Heels have hit 19 home runs in nine games in March after slugging 14 home runs in eight games during the month of February ... UNC has homered in 10 of the last 11 games with multiple home runs in nine of those games ... Eight different players have gone yard in those 11 games.
HEATING UP: Alberto Osuna missed the first three games of the season after having surgery on his hamate bone in late January and went 3-for-24 (.125) at the plate in his fist seven games back ... In his last seven games, Osuna is 10-of-24 (.416) with an OPS of 1.158 ... Osuna has reached base safely in 11 consecutive games.
DOUBLING DOWN: Tomas Frick leads the ACC and ranks second nationally in doubles with 10 ... He collected a career-high three doubles in the series finale against Stony Brook ... He had two doubles in the middle game of the series against Seton Hall and Virginia ... Frick enters Tuesday's game having double in each of the last two games.
NOT SO CLOSE CALLS: Carolina record its seventh win of the season by more than five runs Saturday against Virginia ... The Tar Heels have won four games by 10 runs and have scored double digit runs seven times with a season-high of 15 in the series finale against Stony Brook then again three days later against Penn State.
TOP PLAY: Redshirt freshman Casey Cook's dazzling, home run-robbing bare-handed catch in the series finale against Virginia received top billing on ESPN Sports Center's Top Play Saturday night/Sunday morning.
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The Tar Heels are coming off an 8-3 homestand that ended with a 6-0 win over No. 17 Virginia on Saturday in the back end of a doubleheader. Junior college transfers Jake Knapp and Matt Poston combined to toss a five-hit shutout to send the Cavaliers to their first loss of the season behind the bat of Mac Horvath, who drove in three runs and hit his eighth home run of the season. Johnny Castagnozzi blasted his first homer of the year and Carolina shut out Virginia for the first time since 2011.
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| Pitching Matchups | Tuesday | 6 p.m. (ESPN+) | Wednesday | 4 p.m. (ACCNX) |
|---|---|---|
| Charlotte / High Point | RHP Foster Seitz | TBA |
| North Carolina | RHP Kevin Eaise | LHP Kyle Percival |
| Links | WATCH | LISTEN | STATS | WATCH | LISTEN | STATS |
BULLPEN HAS BEEN ON CUE: In 15.0 innings pitched in three games against Virginia over the weekend, six Carolina relievers combined for 20 strikeouts against five walks with a 2.40 ERA ... Will Sandy (7) and Kevin Eaise (9) combined to strike out 16 Cavaliers Friday night in 6.1 innings ... Matt Poston tossed 4.2 scoreless innings with three strikeouts to earn the win over UVA on Saturday ... The Cavaliers were a mere 6-of-31 (.195) against the Tar Heels bullpen with runners on base ... Nelson Berkwich and Cameron Padgett are tied for second in the ACC with eight appearances each, while Ben Peterson and Matt Poston are tied for 10th with seven appearances ... Poston leads the Tar Heels with five games finished ... Of the six UNC pitchers that have thrown five or more innings of relief, five of them are holding opposing hitters under a .232 batting average ... Opponents are hitting a mere .087 against Poston and .189 versus Cameron Padgett ... Of the 10 pitchers to throw at least 3.0 innings out of the bullpen, seven of them are averaging more than a strikeout per inning ... Freshman Matthew Matthijs is averaging 2.21 and graduate Will Sandy is averaging 1.9 strikeouts per inning out of the bullpen. Kevin Eaise (1.67), Nik Pry (1.5) Nelson Berkwich (1.4), Dalton Pence (1.3) and Ben Peterson (1.1) are also averaging more than a strikeout per inning.
BOSH BOMBERS: The Tar Heels are tied for 14th nationally in home runs with 33, which tied for third-most in the ACC behind Wake Forest (36) and NC State (35), and alongside Miami (33) ... After hitting 101 home runs last season, UNC is on pace to hit 108 home runs in 2023, which would tie the school record set by the 2002 squad ... By comparison, the 2022 Diamond Heels hit 19 home runs in their first 17 games ... UNC is one of six DI teams to have at least four players with five home runs (Horvath 8, Van De Brake 6, Frick 6, Honeycutt 5) ... South Carolina and Florida Gulf Coast each have five players with five or more home runs, while Florida, UCF and Toledo join the Heels with four players ... The Tar Heels have hit 19 home runs in nine games in March after slugging 14 home runs in eight games during the month of February ... UNC has homered in 10 of the last 11 games with multiple home runs in nine of those games ... Eight different players have gone yard in those 11 games.
HEATING UP: Alberto Osuna missed the first three games of the season after having surgery on his hamate bone in late January and went 3-for-24 (.125) at the plate in his fist seven games back ... In his last seven games, Osuna is 10-of-24 (.416) with an OPS of 1.158 ... Osuna has reached base safely in 11 consecutive games.
DOUBLING DOWN: Tomas Frick leads the ACC and ranks second nationally in doubles with 10 ... He collected a career-high three doubles in the series finale against Stony Brook ... He had two doubles in the middle game of the series against Seton Hall and Virginia ... Frick enters Tuesday's game having double in each of the last two games.
NOT SO CLOSE CALLS: Carolina record its seventh win of the season by more than five runs Saturday against Virginia ... The Tar Heels have won four games by 10 runs and have scored double digit runs seven times with a season-high of 15 in the series finale against Stony Brook then again three days later against Penn State.
TOP PLAY: Redshirt freshman Casey Cook's dazzling, home run-robbing bare-handed catch in the series finale against Virginia received top billing on ESPN Sports Center's Top Play Saturday night/Sunday morning.
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