Most people around the UNC baseball program were aware of the talent JB Bukauskas had before he ever stepped on campus.
A potential first-round MLB Draft picking coming out of high school, he opted to attend UNC for at least three years rather than head straight for the pros.
Now a sophomore, Bukauskas is living up to those expectations and then some–striking out 11 hitters on Saturday to lead the No. 15 Tar Heels to an 8-1 win over the Virginia Cavaliers in Charlottesville.
UNC (24-11, 9-8 ACC) desperately needed the victory in order to avoid dipping below .500 in the conference standings.
Kyle Datres (8) opened the scoring on Saturday with a solo homer off Virginia pitcher Adam Haseley. (Smith Cameron Photography)
Home runs by freshman Kyle Datres–who was left out of the lineup in Friday’s loss–and senior Eli Sutherland gave Bukauskas more than enough run support in his matchup with Virginia’s Adam Haseley–who had yet to lose a decision entering the day.
Virginia (22-15, 8-9 ACC), like most teams who have faced the right-hander this year, simply could not stay on balance with the combination of Bukauskas’ 97 mph fastball and hard 88 mph slider.
The dominant effort on the mound comes a week after Bukauskas set a career-high with 13 strikeouts against Virginia Tech. A native of Ashburn, Virginia, he now has at least 11 strikeouts in three of his last four starts.
It was, as expected, a pitcher’s duel through the first four innings. The teams combined for no runs on just five hits during that span.
Datres finally broke the scoreless streak in the top of the fifth when he got the sweet spot on a pitch by Haseley–sending it deep into left field for a solo home run, his second long bomb of the year.
A pair of errors by Virginia in the sixth inning was what finally caught up to Haseley, and allowed UNC some breathing room.
The first error allowed Tyler Ramirez to become the second man on base for the Tar Heels with no outs in the inning. The second error, a throwing miscue by third baseman Justin Novak, allowed both Ramirez and Adam Pate to score.
Haseley then walked Datres, which forced the Cavaliers to turn to their bullpen a bit earlier than they expected.
Spencer Trayner pitched a scoreless ninth inning to close out the win. (Smith Cameron Photography)
A pair of Virginia relievers were needed to finish off the frame, but not before they walked Cody Roberts with the bases loaded and balked during the next at-bat. The mistakes allowed UNC to open up a 5-0 lead after handing the Tar Heels an additional two runs without much resistance.
After scraping across one run in their half of the sixth, the Cavaliers picked up right where they left off for the seventh.
Walks to Pate and shortstop Logan Warmoth to begin the inning set up Sutherland’s fourth home run of the season for UNC–a three-run bomb that brought the score to its final margin.
Bukauskas threw one more inning after that, but the Tar Heels turned to Brett Daniels, Cole Aker, and Spencer Trayner to finish the game.
Up Next:
The Tar Heels will go for their first series win over Virginia since 2012 in Sunday’s rubber match, with first pitch set to be thrown at 1 p.m.
Game Notes:
- Just four players had hits for the Tar Heels, as Datres, Sutherland and Pate each had two. Roberts was the only player on the team to have just one.
- UNC scored eight runs despite going 1-for-16 at the plate with runners on base.
- The Tar Heels are 18-0 this year when scoring at least six runs.
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