On a hot Sunday at Boshamer Stadium, the bullpen of the No. 11 North Carolina baseball team shined, propelling the team to a 5-4 victory over Virginia to win the three-game series.
With the game tied, 1-1, in the fourth inning and two men on base, North Carolina pitcher Andrew Grogan burst out of the bullpen and ran to the pitcher’s mound. In that moment, he had one thing on his mind.
“Don’t give up runs. That’s it,” Grogan said. “Just throw the ball over the plate, and execute. Don’t give up runs.”
Grogan was able to get out of the jam, but not before a Virginia run. A sacrifice fly gave Virginia the lead, 2-1.
After that inning, however, Grogan found his groove and was able to quiet the Virginia offense. The first Virginia hit off of Grogan did not come until the top of the seventh inning. By the time he was taken out, he pitched 4.1 innings, gave up three hits, threw four strikeouts, and allowed zero earned runs. More importantly, his pitching was enough for his team to nab the 5-4 win.
“My fastball command is what really helped," Grogan said. "I had the change up going, and the slider. Pretty much everything was working well."
With the win, Grogan now sits at 4-1 on the season with a 3.38 ERA. In Grogan’s last two outings, he has pitched a combined 12 innings, allowing just eight hits and one earned run.
“The last two times, I mean, that's what we saw from him in the fall,” head coach Mike Fox said.
In addition to Grogan, the North Carolina bullpen as a whole was successful over the weekend. In the three-game series against Virginia, nine pitchers came out of the bullpen for the Tar Heels, and they pitched a combined 16 innings and gave up twelve earned runs.
