The No. 10 UNC baseball team picked up some in-state bragging rights on Wednesday night, traveling to Greenville and earning a 6-2 victory over the East Carolina Pirates at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
Sophomore rightfielder Brandon Riley–a Burlington native–led the charge by going 3-for-4 at the plate with four RBIs for the Tar Heels (16-5, 4-2 ACC), including a double and a three-run homer.
The long ball came during the fourth inning, and extended UNC’s lead to four runs–giving reliever Rodney Hutchison a comfortable lead to work with on the mound.
Riley then added an RBI in the sixth when his infield single allowed Kyle Datres to come around and score.
Hutchison, meanwhile, earned his third pitching victory of the year after tossing 4.2 shutout innings in relief of starter Tyler Baum–while only giving up two hits to East Carolina (14-8) during that span.
He remained solid up through the eighth inning, when he was pulled in favor of star freshman closer Josh Hiatt with two outs and two men on base.
Much like he has all season, Hiatt worked the Tar Heels out of trouble by striking out all four men he faced in the game.
He now has eight saves through the team’s first 21 games, which is double the amount UNC had as a team throughout the entirety of 2016.
Up Next:
UNC will return home to Boshamer Stadium this weekend for a three-game series vs. Miami. The first game is scheduled for Friday at 4 p.m., which is a time change from the original start time of 6:30 p.m.
Game Notes:
- Tar Heel junior shortstop Logan Warmoth reached base for the 36th straight game, and stole his career-high 12th base of the year.
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