University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
41-18
Houston
38-25
No. 6 Tar Heels Slug Past Houston To Reach Supers
June 3, 2018 | Baseball
The Tar Heels etched their name in the record books tonight as the 19 runs scored and the 30 combined runs are the most in a NCAA Tournament game in Carolina baseball history. Carolina and Houston combined to score 18 runs between the sixth and eighth innings while combining to use 12 pitchers over the course of the game.
Just like they did Friday night, the Tar Heels got the crowd involved early as Kyle Datres sent the second pitch of the game over the right field wall for a leadoff home run.
The lead was short lived as Houston responded with three unanswered runs of their own capped by a solo home run in the third inning to take the 3-1 lead.
Carolina responded in a big way with a five-run inning in the bottom half of the third to take the 6-3 lead. Saturday's hero Josh Ladowski got things going with a pinch hit leadoff double to left field before Datres singled to put runners on the corners. Michael Busch added to his team leading RBI count with a single to right field to put the Tar Heels down one, 3-2. A wild pitch brought home Datres to tie the game before things got really interesting. Brandon Riley lined a ball to the shortstop, who couldn't handle the diving catch, so Busch broke for home. The throw beat Busch, but the head first slide bounced the ball away as Carolina took the 4-3 lead and Riley moved to second base. Next up, Freeman bounced a ball to the second baseman who threw it over the first baseman from Houston allowing Riley to score from second and then Martorano singled to bring home Freeman for the 6-3 advantage.
The Tar Heels would tack on three more runs in the fourth inning to make it 9-3 before both teams broke open the bats in the sixth inning by combining for 18 runs through the eighth.
In a turn of events in the bottom of the eighth inning with the bases loaded and a full count on Datres, the game was delayed for 53-minutes due to severe weather. At that time, the Tar Heels were only leading 14-11 before coming out of the delay to score the next five runs and finish the game with a 19-11 win.
North Carolina will face off against Stetson in the Super Regionals. Times and dates of those games have not been announced at this time.
NCAA Chapel Hill Regional – All-Tournament Team
C: Kyle Lovelace, Houston
1B: Michael Busch, North Carolina
2B: Zack Gahagan, North Carolina
SS: Ike Freeman, North Carolina
3B: Kyle Datres, North Carolina
OF: Tyler Bielamowicz, Houston
OF: Ben Nisle, Purdue
OF: Greg White, NC A&T
DH: Joe Davis, Houston
P: Cooper Criswell, North Carolina
P: Aaron Fletcher, Houston
MOP: Michael Busch, North Carolina
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Bergner, Austin (7-2)
L: LOCKHART, Lael (1-2)
Batting:
2B: PADGETT, Grayson 1 ; DAVIS, Joe 1
HR: TRIOLO, Jared 1 ; DAVIS, Joe 1 ; MINTER, Drew 1
RBI: BIELAMOWICZ, Tyler 1 ; TRIOLO, Jared 1 ; DAVIS, Joe 5 ; MINTER, Drew 3 ; LOVELACE, Kyle 1
SF: BIELAMOWICZ, Tyler 1 ; MINTER, Drew 1
Base Running:
RUNS: BIELAMOWICZ, Tyler 1 ; PADGETT, Grayson 1 ; TRIOLO, Jared 1 ; LOCKHART, Lael 2 ; DAVIS, Joe 2 ; HOLLIS, Connor 2 ; COLDIRON, Cooper 1 ; MINTER, Drew 1
HBP: LOCKHART, Lael 1
Batting:
2B: Ladowski, Josh 1
HR: Datres, Kyle 1 ; Gahagan, Zack 1
RBI: Datres, Kyle 2 ; Busch, Michael 4 ; Roberts, Cody 1 ; Riley, Brandon 3 ; Freeman, Ike 3 ; Martorano, Brandon 1 ; Gahagan, Zack 2
SH: Roberts, Cody 1 ; Gahagan, Zack 1
SF: Riley, Brandon 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Datres, Kyle 5 ; Busch, Michael 4 ; Riley, Brandon 1 ; Freeman, Ike 1 ; Enwiller, Dylan 1 ; Martorano, Brandon 2 ; Gahagan, Zack 2 ; Ladowski, Josh 2 ; Tessar, Dallas 1
SB: Datres, Kyle 1
HBP: Datres, Kyle 1 ; McGee, Ashton 1
