Despite missing the last two NCAA Tournaments, the UNC baseball team entered 2017 with enough talent to earn the No. 9 ranking in the D1baseball.com preseason poll.
It may take a while for the Tar Heels to silence all their critics, but they were at least able to showcase a little bit of that talent with a three-game sweep over the Kentucky Wildcats this past weekend.
Preseason First Team All-American JB Bukauskas started the party on Friday by striking out 10 Wildcats over six shutout innings as UNC cruised to a 3-1 victory in its season opener.
JB Bukauskas–a potential top 10 pick in this June’s MLB Draft–opened 2017 by striking out 10 Kentucky hitters while tossing six shutout innings of three-hit ball. (Joe Bray/ UNC Athletics)
Saturday’s game saw the Tar Heels take a 6-1 lead behind three RBI from sophomore third baseman Kyle Datres, but Kentucky rallied over the final three innings to make things interesting.
A four-out save from freshman reliever Josh Hiatt was needed to seal up what ultimately became a 6-5 win for UNC, with Hiatt striking out Luke Heyer–the potential game-tying run–to end the proceedings.
The power bats finally showed up for head coach Mike Fox and company on Sunday, as Tyler Lynn and Logan Warmoth hit the Tar Heels’ first two home runs of the season en route to a 5-4 victory.
Sundays have been a weakness for UNC in recent seasons, but 6-foot-6-inch freshman Luca Dalatri provided a solid outing on the mound in his first career start–as it tries to reverse the ugly trend in 2017.
The New Jersey native gave up all four of Kentucky’s runs, but lasted through seven innings in order to help Fox earn his 800th career win as the Tar Heel head coach.
Up Next:
UNC will stay at Boshamer Stadium this week, as it plays host to Gardner-Webb on Wednesday before Radford comes in over the weekend for a three-game series.
Series Notes:
- Mike Fox’s 800 wins at UNC have come across 19 seasons. He is the winningest coach in program history.
- Sophomore Brandon Riley led the team with five hits in 11 at-bats in the series.
- Hiatt earned the save in all three games of his first collegiate series–striking out six hitters in his 3.2 innings. His strikeout total out of the bullpen was higher than both Jason Morgan and Luca Dalatri, who started on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, and each struck out five hitters for the Tar Heels.
- Another impact freshman–first baseman Michael Busch–started all three games and posted a .300 batting average over 10 at-bats.
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