The No. 9 North Carolina baseball team snuck past Radford, 2-0, on Friday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium. UNC junior Brian Miller’s two-run home run in the bottom of the eight broke a scoreless game and gave North Carolina a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
What happened?
The Tar Heels (5-0) and the Highlanders (1-4) were scoreless for the first seven innings. North Carolina junior righty J.B. Bukauskas was locked in a pitching battle with Radford’s Zack Ridgely.
Sophomore pitcher Rodney Hutchison Jr. relieved Bukauskas — who had a heroic effort with 11 strikeouts — in the eighth inning and kept the Highlanders scoreless.
Radford stuck with Ridgely — who was still relatively fresh — in the eighth. The Highlanders pitcher was still boasting a shutout, but he wouldn’t have that accolade for much longer.
In the bottom of the eighth, sophomore Cody Roberts advanced to second base off a sacrifice bunt from teammate Utah Jones. Miller was up.
On the third pitch of his at-bat, he made contact. The ball sailed toward right-center field and split the American and UNC flags right behind the fence. Gone.
The Tar Heels then brought in their third pitcher of the game, redshirt first-year Josh Hiatt, to close it out in the ninth. Radford looked to have life with a runner on third, but Hiatt delivered his third and final strikeout of the inning to secure a victory and pick up his fourth save of the season.
