Carolina Claims 5th Straight ACC Series With Win Over Virginia Tech

Sunday, April 20

Blacksburg, Va.

1 PM

North Carolina

31-9, 13-8

Virginia Tech

25-15, 10-11

North Carolina

Virginia Tech

Carolina Claims 5th Straight ACC Series With Win Over Virginia Tech

April 20, 2025 | Baseball

Box Score

By: William Soulé

BLACKSBURG, Va. – The Diamond Heels overcame an early deficit to take a 7-4 win over Virginia Tech on Easter Sunday. The result gives UNC a 17-2 advantage all-time in weekend series against the Hokies.

The Tar Heels (31-9, 13-8 ACC), who have won their last five conference series since dropping their first two, stayed hot at the plate with 10 hits and nine walks. It is the sixth time the team has eclipsed both of those marks in the same game this season, going undefeated in those contests.

Getting hot at the right time, UNC has reached double digit hits in eight of its last nine. It had only done so 14 times in the 31 games prior.

Virginia Tech scored first, as they did in each game on the weekend. Three straight two-out hits scored a pair of Hokies in the third. It would then be seven unanswered for Carolina that swung the tide back to the Tar Heels.

In the top of the fourth, Virginia native Lee Sowers chopped a grounder through the infield that was misplayed by the Tech right fielder and allowed Alex Madera to come around and score to open the Carolina ledger.

Sowers had himself a weekend, going 3-for-6 across the two games he played with a walk and two runs scored. He would add another clutch RBI single that started a big run for UNC in the seventh.

Before Sowers' big moment, Carolina captain Jackson Van De Brake launched a fastball 426 feet over the Hokie pitching lab beyond left field. It was the fourth longest home run of the season, and it tied the game for the Heels.

UNC would score four more runs in the next two innings, each of them coming with two outs. Luke Stevenson singled to cap off an eight pitch at-bat and bring in Carter French to claim their first lead of the day in the sixth.

Then in the seventh, after the first two Heels were sat down, the next six Tar Heels reached safely and brought in three more runs in the process. Sowers got his RBI with a line drive to the gap in left center that brought a streaking Madera all the way around from first.

Van De Brake stayed hot with another single (one of his three hits on the day) that scored two. The Heels got their final run when Kane Kepley went hunting for his fifth steal of the weekend, this time of home. Seeing the speedy Carolina centerfielder coming, Virginia Tech catcher Henry Cooke stepped forward to prepare for a tag. In doing so, he was called for interference and Kepley was safe at the plate.

On a day when Virginia Tech used 11 different pitchers, Carolina only needed two of their most reliable arms. The recently turned 19-year-old Jason DeCaro got his 10^th start of the year and was quietly brilliant outside of one tough spell in the third. He would go 5.1 innings allowing just four hits and two runs while striking out six.

The true freshman (but still somehow barley older than DeCaro) Ryan Lynch was equally as dominant in his 3.2 IP of relief work. He struck out three while only allowing one hit, an inconsequential two-run homer in the eighth.

The Tar Heels will make their way back home for a midweek matchup with Presbyterian in Boshamer Stadium on Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET. It will be the team's Cancer Awareness Game in conjunction with ACC Baseball Cancer Awareness Week.

In partnership with Shoes for Hope, each member of the coaching staff and select players will wear shoes painted by patients from UNC Children's. The kicks will be auctioned off to benefit the hospital.