University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
41-12, 22-8
Duke
35-18, 16-14
Baseball Completes Regular Season With Series Win At Duke
May 18, 2024 | Baseball
The Tar Heels (41-12) finished conference play with their best record since also going 22-8 in 2018 and recorded their fifth consecutive series win over the Blue Devils (35-18, 16-14).
"It's a great credit to our guys to come back and get a series win on the road, especially after losing game one," UNC head coach Scott Forbes said. "I challenged our guys to approach [the series] like a Super Regional, to dig deep and find a way to win it. They did that."
Anthony Donofrio had two doubles and one RBI. Alberto Osuna had two hits and three RBIs, while Alex Madera and Luke Stevenson drove in two.
Matthew Matthijs (12-4) earned the victory, pitching 1 1/3 shutout innings with two strikeouts. UNC starter Aidan Haugh allowed three runs, four hits, and three walks in 4 2/3 innings with six strikeouts.
Fran Oschell (0-2) got just one out after taking over for starter Andrew Healy to start the third. He allowed six runs – all earned – two hits and three walks.
The Tar Heels sent 10 men to the plate in the third inning. Cook had a two-run single, and Honeycutt scored on a wild pitch. Osuna hit a bases-clearing double and then scored on a ground out to second.
"It felt great to finally be able to help the team win," Osuna said. "It's been a rough couple of games, but I just stuck with it [and] stuck with the approaches."
UNC added four runs in the fifth. Cook led off the inning with a double, and Donofrio drove him home with a one-out double. Madera's bunt up the first base line scored Donofrio, and Stevenson tripled off the left field wall to bring in two runs and push the Tar Heels out to an 11-2 lead.
Cook belted his 16th home run in the eighth with two runners on base to make the score 14-5.
"Just getting more of those situations under your belt [and] the better you feel at the plate, the more you're gonna perform how you're capable of performing," Cook said.
Logan Bravo homered and drove in two, while Alex Stone had two hits and two RBIs for the Blue Devils.
The Tar Heels will return to action, May 21-26, at the 2024 ACC Baseball Championship in Charlotte. Pairings for the tournament will be announced on Saturday night, and game times will be revealed on Sunday.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Matthijs, Matthew (12-4)
L: Oschell III, Fran (0-2)
Batting:
2B: Cook, Casey 1 ; Donofrio, Anthony 2 ; Osuna, Alberto 1 ; Wilkerson, Colby 1
3B: Stevenson, Luke 1
HR: Cook, Casey 1
RBI: Cook, Casey 5 ; Donofrio, Anthony 1 ; Osuna, Alberto 3 ; Madera, Alex 2 ; Stevenson, Luke 2
SH: Madera, Alex 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Honeycutt, Vance 2 ; Cook, Casey 3 ; Harber, Parks 1 ; Donofrio, Anthony 2 ; Osuna, Alberto 2 ; Madera, Alex 1 ; Stevenson, Luke 1 ; Wilkerson, Colby 2
SB: Honeycutt, Vance 1 ; Cook, Casey 1 ; Donofrio, Anthony 1
Batting:
HR: Bravo, Logan 1
RBI: Morris, Zac 1 ; Stone, Alex 2 ; Bravo, Logan 2 ; Yu, Andrew 1
SF: Morris, Zac 1 ; Stone, Alex 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Morris, Zac 2 ; DiGiacomo, Roman 1 ; Bravo, Logan 1 ; Clark, Wallace 1 ; Winslow, Macon 1
HBP: Clark, Wallace 1
