Hunter Williams gets Liberty revenge

Hunter Williams’ outing Wednesday night in the North Carolina baseball team’s (20-13, 7-8 ACC) 6-0 shutout of Liberty was indicative of his season thus far.

It started out a bit shaky.

“He was kind of teetering there in the first inning,” said Coach Mike Fox.

The 6-foot-3, 234-pound freshman started out the first inning by loading up the bases after giving up a single and a pair of walks to load the bases. In the next inning, Williams allowed another single and another walk to give the Flames another early scoring opportunity.

“I just couldn’t find the zone,” he said. “It happens, I guess.”

After just two innings, the left-handed starter had already thrown 51 of the 109 pitches that he would finish the game with.

And much like those first two innings Wednesday, Williams’ first two starts for UNC were a bit rough. In his first start — which was also against Liberty — he lasted just two innings. In his next start against Coastal Carolina, he lasted just 2.2 innings.

At first it looked like Wednesday night would be another short outing for him. Trevor Kelley, the team’s leader in appearances, was already getting loose in the bullpen.

“I was kinda getting loose for about three or four innings,” he said.

But Wednesday night in his redemption opportunity against Liberty, he settled in once again after his first two innings.

“It’s funny how you go from being basically one batter or maybe one or two pitches from coming out of the game to throwing six innings,” Fox said. “That’s how crazy the game is.”

Williams realized his delivery was off in those first couple innings, but he made the necessary adjustments during the third.

“I was just trying to keep everything going towards home plate,” he said. “I was kind of opening up, had some balls sliding out; I was trying to just slow everything down, slow the game down.

“Just go pitch by pitch, and that’s really what helped me out.”

As Wednesday night’s game showed, Williams has been capable of identifying his flaws and correcting them accordingly. Entering Wednesday, Williams had thrown 18 innings in three starts and allowed just seven hits and two runs.

Williams worked predominantly off his four-seam and two-seam fastballs throughout the rest of his start, which lasted six innings and saw him strike out six Liberty batters while scattering three hits and preventing a single run.

“You gotta give him credit; he just kind of got it back together and got in a rhythm and had a couple quick innings,” Fox said. “He’s hard to hit.”

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