Heels Split Doubleheader Against Virginia After 12th Inning Walk Off

Saturday, March 7

Chapel Hill

1 PM

North Carolina

12-3-1

Virginia

13-2

Virginia

North Carolina

Photo by: AINSLEY E. FAUTH

Heels Split Doubleheader Against Virginia After 12th Inning Walk Off

March 8, 2026 | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Gm 1 Photo Gallery Gm 2 Photo Gallery

By: William Soulé

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Carolina baseball split the spoils with visiting Virginia in a Saturday doubleheader, losing the first game, 9-2 before winning a marathon, 12-inning second contest, 8-7.

The No. 8 Tar Heels (13-3-1) played a total of six hours and 32 minutes of baseball, capped off by a heroic effort from true freshman Tyler Howe that helped Carolina avoid being swept at home for the first time since 2023. Carolina has played two doubleheaders this season and both have ended in walk-off wins.

Game One: Carolina 2, Virginia 9
Playing out very similarly to Friday's contest, the Cavaliers grabbed ahold of the game with some big innings early and cruised the rest of the way. A two-out, two-run home run in the third from Sam Harris started the run before the Hoos put up four and two in the fifth and sixth.

Carolina starter Ryan Lynch went 4.0 frames with six strikeouts but allowed five runs in picking up his first loss of the season. Tom Chmielewski backed him up with four punchouts in 3.0 innings, a Carolina career high for the Needham, Mass., product.

UNC's two runs came on solo shots from Gavin Gallaher and Owen Hull. The towering shot from Gallaher went 403 feet, just two shy of tying his own 405 that is the farthest on the team this year. It was the first long ball of the season for Hull.

Game Two: Carolina 8, Virginia 7 (12 Inn.)
The series finale was a much closer contest than the previous two, bringing enough entertainment for the whole weekend across its 12 innings. The Heels had to come from behind three different times, the largest deficit sitting at 5-1 to start the bottom of the fifth.

Gallaher gave Carolina its first lead of the series with a solo homer in the first. The star junior finished tied for the best batting average on the team on the week, picking up two hits and a walk in this one.

Virginia rattled off five straight after Gallaher's blast and looked set to complete the sweep, but the Tar Heels brought their fight to the final game. In the fifth, Cooper Nicholson and Jake Schaffner hit a double and a triple back-to-back to cut the deficit in half. Schaffner is up to four triples on the year, leading the nation.

Carolina kept the momentum rolling in the sixth through a Colin Hynek two-RBI double to the wall in left. The game was now tied and would be going into the ninth.

All the positive energy UNC had built up seemed to evaporate when Harris came through for the Cavaliers again, scoring one to take the lead back. Up steps Tyler Howe, who lead off the bottom of the ninth by launching his first career collegiate home run to bring the game back to even.

The initial frames of extras would go scoreless until a blooper landed just inside the right field line for Virginia's Noah Jouras that would score one and force a Carolina comeback once again.

In the bottom of the 12^th, Owen Hull ripped a double to the wall in right that would score the pinch-running Perry Hargett from first and tie the game. Then it was once again Howe that played the hero, slapping a single through the diving arms of Virginia's five-man infield to bring Hull home and walk-off the game.

The Carolina bullpen earned the highlights on the mound, led by another true freshman in Caden Glauber. The kid put together by far his best collegiate outing, setting new career highs in innings pitched (5.1) and strikeouts (8), quieting the hot Virginia bats for a large stretch of the game and helping the Heels get back in it.

Captain Matthew Matthijs finished the game and picked up the win, punching out five in his 2.1 extra innings pitched.

The Heels will wrap up their 11 game homestand on Tuesday against Bucknell before traveling west to face the Cal Golden Bears next weekend.