The No. 13 North Carolina baseball team (20-8, 6-4 ACC) won two of its three games on the road against Notre Dame (14-11, 5-7 ACC) this weekend.
What happened?
In the first game, sophomore outfielder Vance Honeycutt put the Tar Heels on the board first after scoring on a fielder's choice from junior catcher Tomas Frick. Honeycutt’s run sparked a two-inning scoring spurt that put the Tar Heels ahead 4-3 heading into the third inning.
But UNC’s offense sputtered in the third, as the Tar Heels notched just zero hits and runs. Meanwhile, the Fighting Irish woke up at the plate and scored three runs to pull ahead 6-4 heading into the fourth.
The Tar Heels’ struggles at the plate continued until the final frame, as the team recorded just two hits from the third to the eighth inning. However, UNC's bats came alive in the ninth when junior infielder Colby Wilkerson hit a leadoff home run to make it an 8-5 ballgame. A few batters later, junior third baseman Johnny Castagnozzi belted a grand slam to put UNC ahead and the team held on to seal the 10-8 win.
After game two of the series was postponed due to inclement weather, the Tar Heels played the Fighting Irish in a doubleheader on Sunday with a 40-minute break between the two games.
Both teams struggled offensively early in game one of the doubleheader before UNC scored two runs in the fifth inning and another in the sixth, giving the Tar Heels a three-run advantage entering the seventh.
UNC conceded two runs in the seventh inning and led by just one run heading into the eighth, but junior pitcher Connor Bovair sent the Fighting Irish down to put the finishing touches on a standout performance on the mound.
In the ninth inning, junior infielder Jackson Van De Brake singled to right field and Wilkerson and sophomore outfielder Reece Holbrook scored to put UNC ahead 5-2. Newly inserted graduate pitcher Kevin Eaise shut down Notre Dame in the bottom half of the frame to help the Tar Heels clinch the win.
