GREENVILLE — The No. 5 North Carolina baseball team (7-0) completed a three-game sweep of East Carolina (2-5) with a 6-3 victory Monday night at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
The Tar Heels now lead the all-time series, 35-14, against the Pirates. 2025 marks the first time UNC has swept ECU in a three-game series. It’s also North Carolina’s best start to a season since 2019.
The Pirates struck first in the bottom of the first against UNC starter junior righty Aidan Haugh. Alex Peltier and Michael Kalinich started the frame with singles. Kalinich scored the game’s first run on a ground ball off the bat of Austin Irby.
UNC answered immediately with a three spot in the second. Graduate first baseman Hunter Stokely continued his hot hitting with an opposite field home run to tie the game. Senior second baseman Jackson Van De Brake drove in a run with a single, and sophomore third baseman Gavin Gallaher added an RBI groundout.
Dixon Williams doubled home a run in the third for the Pirates, but the Tar Heels scored two more in the fourth. Graduate shortstop Alex Madera plated a run with a sacrifice fly. Gallaher scored on a wild pitch.
Stevenson singled to right field in the top of the sixth inning to drive in Madera and make it 6-2 UNC.
Haugh exited after five innings. He allowed the two runs on four hits and struck out a career-high 10 batters.
Junior right-handed reliever Matthew Matthijs came on with one out and runners on second and third in the bottom of the seventh inning. He put out the fire with a strikeout and a ground out. ECU did get a run back off Matthijs in the eighth, a solo home run off the bat of John Collins.
Matthijs stayed on to pitch the ninth. He struck out the first two Pirates before surrendering a two-out double to Peltier. But Matthijs struck out Kalinich, his sixth in two and two thirds innings, to finish the job.
