Bullpen Secures Baseball Series Win Over Louisville

Saturday, May 11

Chapel Hill

12 p.m.

North Carolina

38-11, 19-7

Louisville

29-21, 13-13

Louisville

North Carolina

May 11, 2024 | Baseball

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By: UNC Athletics Communications

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Anthony Donofrio reached base four times and drove in the go-ahead run in the fourth, and the bullpen tossed five shutout innings for No. 11 North Carolina, who beat Louisville 6-4 Saturday to clinch a share of the ACC Coastal Division title.

UNC (38-11, 18-7) can capture the division title outright with a win on Sunday.

Carolina won its fifth straight game and has gone 9-1 after enduring a three-game losing streak. The win secured the Tar Heels' eighth consecutive series victory at Boshamer Stadium, following their 14-4 win in the series opener on Friday.

Donofrio and Colby Wilkerson collected three hits, and Parks Harber and Vance Honeycutt had two.

Matt Poston (3-2) earned the win, pitching 2 2/3 shutout innings with two strikeouts against one hit. Dalton Pence earned his sixth save of the year with two scoreless innings, striking out three with Ben Peterson retiring the only batter he faced sandwiched between them.

"We've started using Poston in a different role," UNC head coach Scott Forbes said. "He recovers a little bit better, and we want to try to have Dalton out there, if at all possible, at the end of the game. We also knew we would have to sandwich the gap with Ben."

Shea Sprague allowed four runs, five hits, and four walks in four innings before exiting after walking the lead-off batter in the fifth.

Carolina scored five runs off Louisville starter Evan Webster (4-2) in three innings.

Honeycutt singled to lead off the UNC first and scored a one-out single by Donoforio. Louisville tied the game with a run in the second.

Casey Cook hit his 14th home run of the season to start the third, and Harber scored on a groundout to give UNC a 3-1 lead.

Luke Napleton hit a three-run homer in the fourth to give Louisville (29-21, 13-13) a 4-3 lead.

Harber drew a bases-loaded walk off Cardinals' reliever Patrick Forbes to tie the game before Donofrio drove in Honeycutt with the go-ahead run.

Honeycutt's seventh inning sacrifice fly brought in Gavin Gallaher with the final run.

Louisville brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but JT Benson flew out to left for the final out.

The Tar Heels and Cardinals will wrap up their three-game set on Sunday at noon. Junior Aidan Haugh (3-1) will get the start for UNC and will be opposed by Louisville freshman left-hander Colton Hartman (0-1).

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