North Carolina baseball faces its toughest test of the season against Florida State

The North Carolina baseball team will embark on its toughest battle of the season this weekend when it takes on a formidable top-10 opponent.

Friday, UNC opens a three-game home stand against No. 6 Florida State at Boshamer Stadium. The two teams have met 102 times, with the Seminoles sporting a 68-34 record in those matchups. UNC swept the regular-season series last year, outscoring its conference foe in Tallahassee by a combined score of 17-10. Florida State got even in the ACC tournament final, besting UNC by a score of 7-3.

The Seminoles have come out of the gate strong and sport an 18-4 record with a 3-3 start in conference play. The Tar Heels, by comparison, got off to a sluggish start but have won four straight games and come in with a 13-8 record and are a respectable 4-2 in the ACC.

Yet despite the story the results have told, the two teams have been fairly even statistically this year.

Both clubs have solid pitching staffs. Florida State has a collective 3.36 earned run average on the year compared to a 3.29 mark for Mike Fox’s club.

Saturday starter Drew Parrish leads the Seminole staff with a 2.03 ERA. The sophomore left-hander has struck out 36 batters in 31 innings of work and could make life difficult for the Tar Heel bats, who have struck out 162 times this season. Parrish is boosted by two four-game winners — Friday starter Cole Sands and Andrew Karp. 

The Tar Heels are anchored by a terrific bullpen, led by redshirt-sophomore Josh Hiatt and junior Cooper Criswell. Hiatt has not allowed a run in nine appearances this year and the bullpen as a whole has not allowed a run in the last 25.1 innings.

With Friday starter sophomore Gianluca Dalatri out indefinitely, sophomore Tyler Baum has picked up the slack and is sporting a 3-0 mark for the season. Saturday starter Austin Bergner also has three wins on the year and is coming off his best performance of the season, a 12-strikeout game against Pittsburgh. 

The hitting for the two teams has also been eerily similar in multiple categories. Each team has hit 20 home runs on the year and the Seminoles have scored just three more runs on the year with 149. 

Shortstop Drew Mendoza and catcher Cal Raleigh provide the big bats as the top two leaders on the roster in both batting average and runs batted in, respectively. Mendoza’s .450 average is good for ninth best in the nation. Raleigh ranks as the No. 2 college catcher by Baseball America. Only one other starter hits above .280 and as a team the Seminoles hit an uninspiring .264. 

The Tar Heel bats have been on fire recently, evidenced by the 45 runs scored during their four-game winning streak. On the year, UNC is hitting .283 as a team. Third baseman Kyle Datres and shortstop Ike Freeman are the two leading contact hitters, batting .357 and .355, respectively. First baseman Michael Busch provides the power bat and has five home runs on the year to go along with 31 RBIs, the fourth most in the country. 

With these bats heating up, UNC is playing its best baseball of the year at precisely the right time, facing its second top-10 opponent of the 2018 campaign.

While it is still somewhat early in the year, this meeting is important. If the Tar Heels can take the series it will be a big boost for their ACC title hopes moving forward. 

@christrenkle2

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