Baseball Heads To DBAP For Series With Duke

Friday, March 18

Durham, NC

4 p.m.

North Carolina

Duke

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

March 17, 2022 | Baseball

By: Jody Jones

CHAPEL HILL – Off to its best start in six years, No. 15 North Carolina travels to Durham this weekend to take on ACC Coastal Division rival Duke at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP). It'll be the Diamond Heels first road game against the Blue Devils since 2018.

The first pitch of the three-game series is scheduled to be thrown Friday, March 18, at 4 p.m. Game two of the series is slated for Saturday, March 19, at 6 p.m. and will be televised on ACC Network. Sunday's series finale will begin at approximately 1 p.m. Friday's and Sunday's game will be streamed on ACCNX.

The Diamond Heels have won five of the last six meetings in the series, including two of three at The Bosh last season. In their last road series against the Blue Devils, Carolina dropped two of three at the DBAP in 2018.

UNC is winless on the road this season after being shut out by East Carolina, 5-0, in Greenville and 1-0 by Liberty in Lynchburg.

Duke owns a 10-7 overall record, including a 9-5 record at the DBAP.

Pitching Matchups	Friday \| 4 p.m. (ACCNX)	Saturday \| 6 p.m. (ACCN)	Sunday \| 1 p.m. (ACCNX)
Duke	RHP Marcus Johnson	LHP Luke Fox	RHP Billy Seidl
North Carolina	LHP Brandon Schaeffer	RHP Max Carlson	RHP Connor Bovair
Links	WATCH \| LISTEN \| STATS	WATCH \| LISTEN \| STATS	WATCH \| LISTEN \| STATS

PITCHING STAFF AMONG NATION'S BEST
With an ERA of 1.66, North Carolina has the lowest team ERA in country heading into the second weekend of ACC play ...The Diamond Heels have the 14th-best strikeout to walk ratio (3.69) in D1 and rank 11th in fewest walks issued per nine innings (2.84) as well as 18th in fewest hits allowed per nine innings (6.57).

ZARATE'S ON BASE STREAK

Junior outfielder Angel Zarate has reached baseball in 40 consecutive games dating back to last season and is two shy of surpassing Logan Warmoth for most consecutive games reaching base by a Tar Heel in The Super Regional Era ... Warmoth reached base safely in 41 games across the 2016 - 2017 seasons ... Zarate has reached base safely in 82 of 84 games since the start of the 2020 season.

TAR HEEL TRENDS/STREAKS
• Carolina has held its opponents to three of fewer runs in nine of its last 10 games and has only allowed four or more runs in a game three this season ... The pitching staff has combined for 10 or more strikeouts in five of the last eight games.
• Angel Zarate has hit safely in all 17 games this season and has collected multiple hits in seven of the last 10 games (.475, 19x40); Zarate has reached safely in his initial plate appearance in each of the last six games.
• Danny Serretti has the Diamond Heels' second-longest current hit streak at five games, going 6-for-17 (.352) during that stretch ... Mac Horvath has the third-longest active hitting streak on the team at four games (.307, 4x13) and has driven in a run in three of the last four games.
• Johnny Castagnozzi has collected multiple hits in three of the last four games; he is hitting .342 (13x38) over the 10 games ... Castagnozzi has driven in a run in three of the last four games and has homered in each of the final two games against Pitt last weekend, including a Saturday walk-off home run ... He has four home runs in 58 at-bats, equaling his 108 at-bat total a year ago.
• Tomas Frick drove in his 16th and 17th runs of the season on Tuesday, surpassing his 2021 53-game total of 15 ... Horvath has drawn 14 walks in 17 games this year, one shy of his 2021 season total of 15 (46 games).
• Shaddon Peavyhouse hasn't allowed a hit and has struck out seven in 4.0 innings of relief this season (three appearances).
• Kyle Mott made three appearances last week, striking out 10 in 7.2 innings without allowing a run ... Shawn Rapp also made three appearances last week and fanned nine in 4.1 innings pitched without surrendering an earned run.