Baseball To Clash With Gardner-Webb

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The Tar Heels kick off a jam packed week of baseball with a Tuesday night showdown with Gardner-Webb at 6 p.m. in Boshamer Stadium.

It will be the 22nd all-time meeting between the two programs, with Carolina holding a 19-2 advantage over the Runnin Bulldogs.

UNC has won each of the last five contests, all at home in the Bosh. All but two of the games in history have been played there in this series that dates back to 2004.

SCHEDULE
When: Tuesday, April 1 - 6 PM ET
TV: ACCNX
Audio: GoHeels.com
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#19 North Carolina Tar Heels (21-7, 6-6 ACC)
Head Coach: Scott Forbes
Record at North Carolina: 175-96 (5th Season)
Career Record: Same
Career vs. Gardner-Webb: 3-0

Gardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs (14-15, 4-5 Big South)
Head Coach: Jim Chester
Record at Gardner-Webb: 128-138 (6th Season)
Career Record: 237-264 (11th Season)
Career vs. UNC: 0-5

SCOUTING THE DAWGS
➤ The Runnin Bulldogs come into this game on a bounce-back three game win streak, having swept Longwood on the road over the weekend.
➤ Before their series with the Lancers, GWU had been on a six game losing streak that included a loss at Georgia Tech (6-14), a sweep at Presbyterian, and a midweek loss at Davidson.
➤ The Bulldogs and the Tar Heels have a couple of common opponents (not including Presbyterian whom UNC will face Apr. 22). GWU lost a 14-4 contest at South Carolina on Feb. 25 and fell 8-11 at home to East Carolina Mar. 4.
➤ The team's strength comes at the plate where it is top-50 in the country in hits, runs, stolen bases,nd home runs.

ROCKED WITH THE HURRICANES
➤ Carolina returned to the Bosh after two straight weekends on the road for a series with ACC foes Miami.
➤ The Heels took the weekend win, their first home ACC series of the year, thanks to some formidable pitching and timely hitting. The Carolina staff recorded a 1.33 ERA and 26 strikeouts across the three games, allowing just six walks and 22 hits.
➤ Jake Knapp's Friday night shutout performance was especially impressive, going 7.0 innings and setting a new career high of 10 strikeouts.
➤ Jason DeCaro got back to winning ways himself with a three-hit, six strikeout outing in Saturday's win.
➤ In the midweek, UNC made the short trip to Charlotte to take on South Carolina and found themselves in
an offensive slug fest. The true Carolina emerged with a 13-8 victory thanks in large part to four home runs.
➤ Luke Stevenson hit two long balls, the second a two-run blast that broke an 8-8 deadlock in the eighth.
➤ The Diamond Heels got production from the top to the bottom of the lineup, as every single starter scored
on the night. Four guys did so more than once.

HAD TO BE HAUGH
➤ Last Monday, Aidan Haugh was named both the ACC's and the NCBWA's Pitcher of the Week following his one-hit, complete game shutout of Boston College.
➤ It is his first time winning either award in his career.
➤ The righty from Zebulon, N.C., held a no-hitter until the final batter, throwing 7.0 innings while racking up 11 strikeouts on just one hit and one walk.
➤ The absolute gem set a number of career benchmarks for Haugh. It was both his first complete game and first shutout while also being a new career-high in innings pitched and strikeouts.
➤ In BC's final at-bat on Sunday, the hitter struck his own teammate (Haugh's lone walk) with a grounder for the final out. By the technical NCAA rules, the batter is automatically awarded a hit even though it was the final out and the game was over. That close to Carolina's first non-combined no-no since 1978.

ARM TALENT
➤ The Tar Heels' staff leads the ACC in a number of categories including ERA (3.38, 5th NCAA), strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.03, 12th NCAA), WHIP (1.16, 4th NCAA), and walks allowed per nine (3.19, 11th NCAA).
➤ Carolina's starters are all over the ACC leader boards. The team is the only one to have two in the top-eight in ERA and the only one to have three in the top-10 in walks allowed.
➤ UNC put up games with 17 and 14 strikeouts back-to-back twice in week two alone. The last time the team had 14+ Ks in back-to-back games more than once in the same season was 2008.

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Players Mentioned

Jason DeCaro

Aidan Haugh

Jake Knapp

Luke Stevenson