Harber Homers, Bullpen Throws Shutout To Defeat Pitt, 2-1

Friday, March 8

Chapel Hill

4 p.m.

North Carolina

12-2, 0

Pittsburgh

8-2, 0

Pittsburgh

North Carolina

March 8, 2024 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Photo Gallery

By: UNC Athletics Communications

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. –The bullpen pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings, Parks Harber hit his first home run, and Alberto Osuna drove in the game-winning run with a sacrifice fly, and No. 16 North Carolina defeated Pitt 2-1 on Friday in the ACC opener for both teams.

Dalton Pence, Matthew Matthijs (5-0), and Matt Poston combined for six strikeouts and didn't yield a hit or issue a walk in the final 4 1/3 innings.

Pence entered the game with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth and promptly induced a fly ball out to center. He retired the side in order in the sixth and struck out two in the seventh before yielding to Matthijs, who induced a fly out to center to end the inning.

In the eighth, Matthijs sat down the Panthers in order, striking out the last two, and Poston delivered his second save of the season with a hitless ninth.

"Our bullpen was unbelievable," UNC head coach Scott Forbes said. "We had a plan to go to Dalton, Matthijs, and Poston and keep them short because they all threw against Campbell.

"I feel like our guys know that if we can scratch and claw and get a couple of runs, this bullpen is pretty nasty, and we can hold leads."

Georgia transfer Parks Harber homered to lead off the second inning and give UNC (12-2, 1-0 ACC) an early 1-0 lead, which held up until the fifth when Dom Popa singled home Jake Kendro to tie the game.

The pitching duel continued over the next 2 ½ innings before Harber led off the bottom of the eighth with a double into the left field corner.

Freshman Kaleb Cost, who pinch-ran for Harber in the eighth, easily moved to third base on Anthony Donofrio's fly ball to the right and trotted home on Osuna's fly ball to left-center field, which was caught on the warning track.

Carolina starting pitcher Folger Boaz yielded just one run in 4 2/3 innings pitched and struck out four before turning the game over to the bullpen.

"Folger was outstanding," Forbes said. "Unfortunately, he threw too many pitches in [the fifth] inning, and we went to Dalton."

Ryan Andrade pitched 5.0 complete innings for the Panthers (8-2, 0-1) and gave up four hits, allowing only the solo homer. Matthew Fernandez (1-1) took the loss, surrendering a run in the eighth.

The second game of the series between UNC and Pitt is scheduled for Saturday, March 9, at 2 p.m. inside Boshamer Stadium. Freshman Jason DeCaro will take the mound for the Tar Heels, and senior Jack Sokol will get the ball for Pitt.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
B2 – Harber hit a solo home run to lead off the inning (UNC, 1-0).
T5 – Popa singled to left to drive home Kendro with two outs (T, 1-1).
B8 – Osuna lifts a fly ball to center to plate Cost (UNC, 2-1).

NOTABLES:
• The Tar Heels won their 15th consecutive game at Boshamer Stadium and improved to 11-0 at home this season.
• Matthijs added to his NCAA Division I leading victory total, earning his fifth win of the year.
• Poston recorded his second save of the season. The other was also a 2-1 Friday night win two weeks ago against East Carolina.
• The Tar Heels improved to 3-1 in one-run games this season.
• Harber hit his first home run as a Tar Heel in his 40th at-bat of the year.
• Honeycutt extended his on-base streak to 49 games dating back to last season.
• Donofrio did not reach base for the first time this season.