The No. 10 North Carolina baseball team defeated the Miami Hurricanes, 6-3 on Saturday at Boshamer Stadium. The win is the fourth in a row for the Tar Heels (18-5, 6-2 ACC), who got home runs from Brandon Riley and Cody Roberts in their victory.
What happened?
First-year phenom Gianluca Dalatri got the start for North Carolina. Miami’s James Davison took advantage of the righty early with a single, but Dalatri stranded Davison on third to keep the Hurricanes (10-13, 3-5 ACC) scoreless in the first.
In the second inning, Dalatri stranded another Hurricane on third. That set the stage for sophomore outfielder Riley, who cracked the ball over the right-field wall and through a pine tree for a two-run home run.
UNC energized Boshamer Stadium’s crowd with a 5-4-3-2 double play that kept Miami off the scoreboard yet again in the top of the third. The score was still stuck at 2-0, however. Brian Miller changed that in the bottom of the fourth.
With two teammates on base, Miller hit a deep one to right field. Unlike Riley’s ball, this one stayed inside the park — but it still brought two Tar Heels home. North Carolina had doubled its lead.
Junior righty Brett Daniels replaced Dalatri, who allowed nine hits, in the fifth inning. Miami, which had already scored its first run in the fifth, promptly added two more to narrow its deficit to one.
North Carolina brought its lead back to three with two more runs in the bottom of the sixth, including a solo home run from sophomore catcher Roberts.
Roberts’ home run was his first this year, and it was the last score of the game. Redshirt first-year Josh Hiatt subbed in to finish the game off. He walked his first batter, but rebounded by striking out the next. A double play by UNC on the next at-bat ended the inning and the game.
