The No. 19 North Carolina baseball team defeated the Liberty Flames 17-2 on Friday evening in Boshamer Stadium after a two hour wind delay.
What happened?
Sophomore pitcher Tyler Baum took the mound for the Tar Heels (5-5) against Liberty and looked strong early on. Through three innings, he held the Flames hitless with four strikeouts while allowing only one runner to reach base.
While Baum was dealing, UNC had early offensive struggles of its own. North Carolina failed to record a hit through the first two innings of the ball game, but its fortunes changed in the third.
After the first two batters of the inning were walked and redshirt sophomore Dallas Tessar stole a base, he advanced home for the first run of the game on a wild pitch. A second run would cross later in the inning when junior Brandon Riley scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by junior Cody Roberts.
In the top of the fourth, Liberty recorded their first two hits of the game. After a leadoff single, junior Tre Todd launched a homerun off the scoreboard in leftfield to tie the game at two. After the fourth inning, the teams were tied 2-2, but it wouldn't stay that way for long.
The Tar Heels regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning with a flurry of hits that became eight runs.
A single to left-center by Roberts brought home Kyle Datres to retake the lead. UNC added another two more runs in the inning when sophomore Ashton Mcgee nailed a double off the right field wall. With the bases loaded and only one out, Liberty walked three consecutive batters and sophomore Michael Busch tacked on two more runs with a two out single. By the end of the inning, the Tar Heels held a 10-2 lead.
UNC added seven more runs the rest of the way, including a pair of two-run home runs by Zack Gahagan and Brandon Riley. The lead from the fifth inning was too much to overcome and North Carolina closed the door on Liberty for the 17-2 win.
