Heels Take Both Ends Of Doubleheader At #23 Notre Dame

Saturday, March 28

South Bend, Ind.

1 PM ET

North Carolina

22-4-1, 7-3

Notre Dame

15-7, 6-4

North Carolina

Notre Dame

Photo by: William Soule

March 29, 2026 | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: William Soulé

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – A chilly day of baseball resulted in a pair of wins for Carolina baseball, claiming the series on the road against No. 23 Notre Dame with 6-5 and 13-7 victories on Saturday afternoon in Frank Eck Stadium.

The No. 13 Tar Heels (23-4-1, 8-3 ACC) found themselves in a back-and-forth affair in both contests. Five ties and nine lead changes made sure the ranked-on-ranked matchup lived up to its billing, but it was Carolina who emerged victorious on both occasions despite trailing by two runs in each game.

Winning both on Saturday guarantees the road series win for UNC, it's first against a ranked opponent this season. It will be the first road weekend win over a team ranked No. 16-25 since sweeping Virginia in the 2012 campaign.

Game 1: #13 North Carolina 6, #23 Notre Dame 5
The series opener sat on a knife's edge from start to finish. The Heels struck first when leadoff man Jake Schaffner made his way around in the top of the first.

Notre Dame would hit back immediately, tying things up in their half of the opening frame. The seesaw would continue through the middle innings as the teams swapped solo home runs, scoring a collective five runs in a row off the one-man long ball.

In the seventh, it appeared the Fighting Irish had grabbed ahold of the game by taking a two run lead only for the Heels to score three in the top of the eighth to claim the final lead. RBIs from Colin Hynek and Tyler Howe brought Carolina level before a wild pitch brought Howe home for to the go-ahead.

Howe led the charge for the offense in game one, going 2-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Right behind him in the batting order Cooper Nicholson went 3-4. Both had solo home runs.

On the mound, Carolina's ace Jason DeCaro got the start and racked up a career high nine strikeouts in 5.2 innings of work. It was also the most punchouts for any Tar Heel in a game this season.

He was relieved by Matthew Matthijs and Caden Glauber who picked up a win and a save collectively as they ushered the win across the finish line. Glauber has been exceptional so far in his freshman season, adding 2.0 shutout innings with three strikeouts to his ledger in one.

Game 2: #13 North Carolina 13, #23 Notre Dame 7
The second game started much like the opener, as Carolina scored in the top of the first via an Erik Paulsen RBI single. This time though the Irish would bounce back with a three-spot in their half to take their two run lead right away.

The Heels scored in the next three innings to tie the game and eventually take a two run advantage of their own before the Irish once again brought things level in the fifth. From there though, it would be all Carolina.

Seemingly unwilling to play another close contest, UNC put up six runs in the sixth to put the final nail in the coffin. Paulsen popped up again to get things going, smacking a double down the left field line that scored Gavin Gallaher from first.

Then, with two outs against them, Carolina got a double from Hynek and a three-run shot from Nicholson to put up their 10^th inning of six runs or more this season.

Paulsen finished this game 4-6 with two doubles, two RBIs, and two runs scored. Owen Hull, the starting centerfielder who has surged in recent weeks to lead the team in batting average, stayed hot with two hits and five RBIs.

Walker McDuffie collected his team-high sixth win of the season after coming in to relieve the Heels' starter Ryan Lynch. Camron Seagraves had his best outing of 2026 to finish the game with a scoreless 1.1 IP. The trio combined to strike out 14, the second highest output of the season for both the Carolina arms and the Notre Dame batters.

The Tar Heels will roll back into Frank Eck Stadium tomorrow afternoon looking for a road sweep of the Fighting Irish. First pitch will be at 1 p.m. ET with streaming on ACCNX.