On Friday against Pittsburgh, it was the bats that propelled the No. 10 North Carolina baseball team to a lopsided 14-2 victory. On Saturday it was the pitchers turn to lead the way.
In Game 2 of the series, sophomore J.B. Bukauskas and junior A.J. Bogucki combined to shut out the Panthers and give the Tar Heels a 4-0 win.
After Bukauskas worked a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the first, the Tar Heels (12-1) came to the plate with the same swagger that carried them the night before. After both sophomore Brian Miller and junior Adam Pate reached base on singles, first-year Kyle Datres moved them over with a sac bunt.
The next batter, junior Tyler Ramirez, singled to left-center to score the runners. Before Bukauskas had thrown his 12th pitch of the day, North Carolina already led Pittsburgh (6-6) 2-0. It was all the cushion that the right-hander needed.
Over the next six innings, Bukauskas would give up just five hits and strike out another 10 batters, putting his total on the day at 11 — a new career high.
At the plate, UNC added two more runs in the third inning — the first on an RBI ground-out from Datres and the second on a solo home run by Ramirez.
When Bukauskas left after the seventh inning, the Tar Heels were up 4-0. Several times in 2015, North Carolina carried a lead into the late innings, only to have the bullpen allow opponents to tie the game back up or even win.
Bogucki made sure it wouldn't be the case this time.
In the top of the eighth inning, the junior got into some trouble after allowing consecutive one-out singles, but settled down and caused the next two batters to fly out to the right fielder. Both times Bogucki was behind in the count.
