The ACC meat grinder continued to take its toll on the UNC baseball team Friday night at Boshamer Stadium.
For the fifth straight conference outing, the Diamond Heels again fell short–losing 6-0 to the No. 9 Louisville Cardinals, who benefited from an incredible performance by sophomore Brendan McKay.
McKay, the starting pitcher, tossed seven scoreless innings and gave up just three hits for the Cardinals (37-9, 15-7 ACC) while also leaving his mark offensively. He went 2-for-3 hitting in the clean up spot, including a big RBI double in the eighth inning that kick-started a late explosion for his team.
Louisville scraped across a pair of runs–one in the second inning and another in the fourth–much earlier in the game, which forced the Tar Heels (29-16, 9-13 ACC) to have to dig out of a hole against a pitching staff ranked 11th in the country in ERA and fourth in hits allowed per nine innings.
On the mound for UNC, junior Zac Gallen continued his great season by throwing 115 pitches over 7.2 innings, while allowing just two earned runs.
Each of those early runs came after weakly-hit infield grounders that UNC was unable to turn into outs.
“I feel like I had good stuff,” the Gibbsboro, New Jersey native said after the game. “Having that week off helped me kinda rest a little bit. I had some good life [on the fastball], it’s just the way the game goes.”
UNC starting pitcher Zac Gallen was solid on Friday against Louisville, but received little offensive support. (Joe Bray/ UNC Athletics)
The Tar Heel bats were completely shut down, however, as Louisville held them to just four hits the entire night.
Once Gallen was pulled in favor of the bullpen, the Cardinals took full advantage.
Starting with McKay’s RBI in the eighth off Hunter Williams, Louisville added four runs in the final two innings–taking complete control over the outcome.
Zack Gahagan and Brian Miller reached base to begin the home half of the eighth, but all that did was force the Cardinals into putting their closer–fireballer Zack Burdi–into the game an inning early.
Burdi then unleashed 100 mph fastballs and a devastating 88 mph slider on the already struggling Tar Heel lineup. Making it look like child’s play, Burdi cruised through each of the six hitters he faced–striking out four of them.
Now the Tar Heels find themselves grasping for any semblance of success against these tougher conference opponents.
Not only do they have two more games left against Louisville, but the next two weekends will bring series against Notre Dame–who swept them last season–and NC State–which has spent most of the year ranked in the Top 25.
“I have to teach belief,” UNC head coach Mike Fox said in his postgame interview. “That’s where I am right now. So I’m gonna have to go [in the locker room] and do just that.”
Up Next:
First pitch for Saturday’s second game between the Tar Heels and Cardinals is set for 1 p.m.
Game Notes:
- Tyler Ramirez picked up UNC’s first hit of the game in the fourth inning. Ramirez, Logan Warmoth, Brian Miller, and Tyler Lynn were the only Tar Heels to hit safely in the game.
- The win on the mound improves McKay’s record to 9-2 in 2016.
- UNC went 0-for-7 at the plate with runners in scoring position.
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