It was late in the Sunday game of No. 15 UNC baseball’s series against Pittsburgh and —after a weekend of gloomy weather and belligerent gusts — Boshamer Stadium was finally back to its usual sunny self.
If you’re looking for some insurance runs late in the game, just as the Tar Heels were, there’s no better player to have in the box than Angel Zarate. The redshirt junior outfielder hailing is batting over .400 — one of UNC’s most reliable hitters this season.
With a bloop single to center field in the bottom of the eighth, Zarate notched his third hit of Sunday’s game, scoring Mac Horvath and Colby Wilkerson. He took a turn around first base, glanced out to admire his hit for a second and turned back. Proudly planted on the bag, he held his hands up and pointed back at his teammates in the dugout with a big grin.
And he had plenty of reasons to smile this weekend.
Zarate heightened offensive production came at a great time for the Tar Heels this weekend, allowing the team to open ACC play with a series sweep over the Panthers. He totaled eight hits against Pitt and had the highest batting average for North Carolina all series.
Most notably, though, he tied his career-high record with 39 consecutive games of getting on base in Sunday’s game.
“I don’t like to think about it that much,” Zarate said. “I just go out there and my game plan is the same every time: make sure I’m on time for every pitch, make sure I get a good swing off and just try to slow the game down as much as possible.”
It’s an approach that Zarate has taken ever since the fall of 2018, where he batted behind talents like Dodgers first-round pick Michael Busch. In a meeting held during his second year at UNC, some of his coaches suggested Zarate look into transferring if he wanted more playing time.
“I didn’t want to fill out any type of paperwork, so it could be some laziness in there," Zarate said. "But the main thing is, it’s UNC, why would I want to leave? I stuck with it because I didn’t want to go anywhere.”
