No. 21 UNC baseball overpowers Miami, 4-2, to secure series win

No. 21 North Carolina baseball (21-6, 6-5 ACC) secured the series against Miami (14-14, 1-7 ACC) on Saturday afternoon, winning 4-2 at Boshamer Stadium.

Sophomore right-handed pitcher Jason DeCaro made his seventh start on the mound for the Tar Heels, entering with a 3.94 ERA and a 3-2 record.

DeCaro cruised through the top of the first with two strikeouts, retiring the Hurricanes in order. Miami’s right-hander Brian Walters followed suit, keeping UNC scoreless behind two strikeouts of his own. 

In the top of the second, Derek Williams broke the tie with a towering solo home run, giving the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead. In the bottom, graduate designated hitter Sam Angelo secured a three-game hit streak with his single up the middle, but North Carolina was unable to plate the scoring threat.

After DeCaro and the Tar Heel defense produced a hitless frame, UNC loaded the bases behind two singles and an infield error. With two outs, graduate shortstop Alex Madera worked a full count before grounding out, leaving North Carolina still without a run after three.

Besides the lone hit, DeCaro continued to coast through his fourth inning of work, upping his strikeout total to five. Angelo and first-year left fielder Sawyer Black both collected their second hits of the contest in the bottom half, turning over the lineup and bringing up junior centerfielder Kane Kepley with two outs and another scoring opportunity. Kepley grounded up the middle, but an infield error plated the first Tar Heel run.

“When teams are making errors, you [have] to capitalize on them,” Black said. “That goes back to the timely hitting, and you [have] to take advantage of that.”

The gift from the Miami second baseman broke the ice for the UNC offense. Still in the fourth, sophomore catcher Luke Stevenson, graduate first baseman Hunter Stokely and sophomore third baseman Gavin Gallaher recorded back-to-back-to-back two-out singles, opening up the North Carolina lead to 4-1. 

“I tell our guys all the time, ‘keep getting on base.’ Someone is going to get a big hit,” head coach Scott Forbes said.

Both teams failed to reach a baserunner in the fifth.

In the sixth, a leadoff double and a single from Fabio Peralta cut North Carolina's lead back to two and ended DeCaro’s day. UNC turned to first-year right-handed pitcher Ryan Lynch. He struck out the next two batters to work out of the frame. North Carolina failed to respond on offense.

DeCaro finished with five and one-third innings pitched, surrendering three hits and two runs.

“I felt as the game went on, it got a little bit better,” DeCaro said. “Which is good to see because I felt last week that it was the opposite.”

Lynch picked up right where he left off, continuing to work efficiently in the seventh and eighth. The Hurricanes netted just one baserunner off of Lynch in this stretch, a walk in the eighth, before he grounded the next hitter into a double play. Another scoreless frame from UNC sent the game to the ninth inning with UNC still leading 4-2.

Peralta reached on a base hit to leadoff the final frame, but Lynch shut the door with three consecutive outs to secure the series win.

North Carolina tallied nine hits in the contest, with three coming from Stokely. The Tar Heels struck out nine Miami batters.

UNC will wrap up its three-game series with the Hurricanes on Sunday at 12 p.m., at Boshamer Stadium.

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