No folks, it’s not illegal what the No. 6 UNC baseball team did to the Duke Blue Devils in Durham this weekend.
It just wasn’t very nice.
After beating Duke 11-2 on Friday and 12-2 on Saturday, the Tar Heels took Sunday’s series finale at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park by a score of 8-2–demolishing their hated rivals for their fifth straight win.
UNC scored three runs in the first inning–capped by a two-run triple from shortstop Logan Warmoth–as it cruised to yet another victory, improving to 17-2 this season (5-1 ACC).
Duke falls to 10-10 and 1-5 in the ACC.
Warmoth went 2-for-5 with a career-high four RBIs in the game, leading a dominant Tar Heel offense that ended Duke starting pitcher Jack Labosky’s day after he had recorded just three outs.
Junior center fielder Tyler Ramirez blasted a two-run homer–his fourth of the year–off Blue Devil reliever Brian McAfee in the the top of the third, giving UNC a five-run lead.
Tyler Ramirez homered and drove in three runs, giving him eight RBIs over the weekend. (Joe Bray/ UNC Athletics)
Ramirez finished 2-for-2 at the plate with three walks and three RBIs, which provided plenty of run support for sophomore righty Jason Morgan on the mound.
In perhaps the best outing of his young career the 6-foot-6 Morgan tossed seven shutout innings while striking out five hitters. He allowed just five hits and walked one batter during that span.
Duke received a workmanlike effort out of the bullpen from McAfee, who pitched the next six innings after Labosky was pulled, but Ramirez was able to take advantage of him again in the fifth with an RBI single that scored right fielder Adam Pate.
By the time the Blue Devils brought in Kellon Urbon to pitch in the seventh inning the game was well out of reach, with the Tar Heels up 6-0.
Warmoth continued his best offensive day of the year with a two-run single off Urbon in the seventh–scoring Pate and leadoff man Brian Miller.
Miller had a pair of hits and stole his team-leading 12th base of the season in the first inning, which allowed him to score the team’s first run of the game.
Relievers Hunter Williams, Spencer Trayner, Taylor Sugg combined to finish out the game–and the weekend obliteration–for the Tar Heels.
The Blue Devils scratched across two runs with two outs in the ninth against Sugg, but were put to rest with a groundout the very next batter.
Up Next:
UNC will return home to play at Boshamer Stadium on Tuesday, as it hosts the Western Carolina Catamounts at 6 p.m.
Game Notes:
- Duke committed a total of nine errors in the three games (five on Friday and two each on Saturday and Sunday.)
- The combined score of the series was UNC- 31, Duke- 6
- Ramirez had eight RBIs this weekend, and now has 25 this season–to go along with his .433 batting average.
Comments on Chapelboro are moderated according to our Community Guidelines