The North Carolina baseball team entered Thursday’s opening game at Miami in need of at least one win against the Hurricanes in the final series of the regular season, and it finally got it in an 11-2 victory — 29 hours, 25 innings and a 6-5 loss later.
After the first game of the series was postponed Thursday due to severe weather, the Tar Heels took the field at Alex Rodriguez Park Friday afternoon for the first game of a doubleheader.
UNC struck first in the first inning, as Parks Jordan, Landon Lassiter, Skye Bolt and Wood Myers recorded four consecutive hits to furnish the team a 3-0 advantage.
But Miami was able to claw back in the second inning after an error and bases-loaded hit by pitch allowed the Hurricanes to tie the game against UNC ace Trent Thornton.
A two-out single by senior Tom Zengel in the fourth plated Alex Raburn, who had four hits in the first game, to give UNC a 4-3 lead it would hold onto until the eighth inning.
Reliever Reilly Hovis came on in the seventh inning to replace Thornton and retired the first four batters he faced, including three via strikeouts. After Brandon Lopez got on base with a one-out single in the eighth and stole second base, Hovis surrendered a double to Alex Hernandez to tie the game.
Lopez would be the last baserunner to cross home plate for either team for the next seven innings, as both bullpens silenced the other team’s bats. Freshman Spencer Trayner stepped on the mound for UNC and pitched five innings while allowing only three hits.
In the 16th inning, Raburn led off with a double and Jordan drove him home on a two-out single to center to give the Tar Heels a 5-4 lead. But the Hurricanes delivered the final blow in the bottom of the inning, as Tyler Palmer lined one into right field with the bases loaded to give Miami the walk-off win.
After the five-hour game resulted in a gut-wrenching loss, the Tar Heels looked to bounce back early in the second contest.
With two runners aboard, UNC utilized three consecutive two-out hits by Myers, Raburn and Tyler Ramirez to jump out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.
“Everybody just had a huge sense of urgency to get back out there, because we knew we let that one slip away,” said Lassiter, who was 3-for-4 with two RBIs in the second game.
That was all the support junior right-hander Benton Moss would need, as he surrendered his lone run in the first and allowed only four hits over his seven innings of work while striking out nine.
The Tar Heels tacked on three runs in both the second and third innings to make the score 10-1 through three, and the team never looked back.
The win over the No. 13 Hurricanes gives the Tar Heels a much-needed boost to their postseason resume.
Freshman right-hander Zac Gallen (5-3, 4.43 ERA) will toe the rubber for UNC in the third and final game of the series at noon on Saturday against Miami lefty Bryan Radziewski (6-2, 3.38 ERA).
Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com
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