Solid pitching, along with 14 hits and a big four run third inning, proved to be enough for the UNC-Greensboro Spartans to hold on for an upset road victory over the No. 22 Tar Heel baseball team on Tuesday night at Boshamer Stadium by a score of 5-3.

The non-conference loss snaps Carolina’s six game win streak and drops their record to 29-16, while the Spartans reach the .500 mark–improving to 20-20 with the win.

After a clean sweep of three games this past weekend against Boston College that saw the three Tar Heel starting pitchers refuse to allow a single earned run, while pitching 24 of a possible 27 innings, all eyes centered on Hunter Williams, who took the mound on Tuesday looking to provide a solid follow-up performance.

However, the tables seemed to be turned in this game, with Greensboro being the team that controlled the action all the way through.

Hunter Williams was pulled after throwing just 2.1 innings on Tuesday night. (UNC Athletics)

With a full week of rest approaching, it appeared that UNC head coach Mike Fox had Williams (4-2), the freshman left-hander, on quite a short leash–pulling him after he had thrown just 2.1 innings on 54 pitches.

However, that was not the case, as Williams simply did not have his best stuff, Coach Fox says.

“That was not a good start [by Williams], He didn’t have command of anything and a lot of balls were hit hard off of him. I’m surprised he lasted two and a third [innings] because he was not good tonight.”

In that time, the Spartans were able to put together five base-hits, and had already put two men on base in the third when senior Trevor Kelley came out of the bullpen to take over for Williams.

Kelley struck out the first man he faced upon entering the game, then allowed a trio of two-out RBI singles to Jake Kusz, Tyler Long, and Devin Ruiz, which resulted in the whopping four run third inning for the visiting side.

“That got us off to a bad start,” says Coach Fox, “[UNC-G] are a good offensive team, and if [we] don’t pitch well [we’re] gonna get behind, and we did. And we’re not a good enough offensive team to climb out of a hole like that.”

Kusz, the Spartan catcher, struck again in the top of the fifth with a solo home run off of Kelley, putting Carolina into a five-run hole.

Pitching for UNC-Greensboro was freshman right-hander Michael Bates (1-3), who came into the game with a sky-high 10.08 ERA, but you wouldn’t know it if you saw him throw in this game, which was by far his best start of the season.

For four innings Bates held the Tar Heel offense scoreless, until junior second baseman Alex Raburn hit a solo shot of his own in the bottom of the fifth, just barely getting the ball over the fence in left center-field.

“They’re a confident group, it seemed like to me,” says Raburn about the Spartans, “I actually know a couple of those guys.”

“They don’t back down from anybody. They can really swing. I know they’re maybe top five in the country in home runs, so they’re a good team, and [they] definitely didn’t back down.”

In total, Bates tossed 5.1 innings on 95 pitches, and gave up just one run and five hits before handing the ball off to reliever Blair Betts.

Alex Raburn led the Tar Heels offensively, picking up three hits, including a double and a home run. (UNC Athletics)

Alex Raburn led the Tar Heels offensively, picking up three hits, including a double and a home run. (UNC Athletics)

Raburn continued his excellent game in the bottom of the seventh, slapping a single off of Betts for his third hit of the night, leaving him just a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.

That hit was followed by a single from freshman third baseman Zack Gahagan, which plated Skye Bolt and shrank the Tar Heel deficit down to just three runs with no outs in the inning.

Keaton Haack then came on to pitch for the Spartans and promptly walked pinch-hitter Adam Pate to load the bases. Next up was left-fielder Landon Lassiter, who also walked to bring in the second run of the frame–forcing Greensboro to bring Julian Abreu out of the bullpen to try and escape the huge jam.

And he would do just that–earning strike three against Tyler Ramirez for the first out, before getting Korey Dunbar to ground into an inning-ending double play–highlighting UNC’s season-long woes with runners in scoring position.

Hansen Butler, Zach Rice, and Trent Thornton combined to keep the Spartans scoreless over the final four innings, but that would not be enough, as the Carolina offense was unable to fight all the way back at the end.

Closer Collin Woody walked Alex Raburn to begin the Tar Heels’ final at-bats in the bottom of the ninth, but then picked up a fielder’s choice and a double play to close up shop on the Spartans’ upset.

“Yeah, this was very disappointing,” says Coach Fox, “I pleaded with [the players] Sunday after the game, I pleaded with them before the game, to please be ready tonight.”

“I won’t call it a trap game, but the game during exams, it’s gone both ways for us.”

Up Next:

The Tar Heels will have a week off for final exams, so there will not be an ACC series this weekend. They will return to action next Tuesday at Boshamer Stadium with a game against UNC-Asheville, which was originally scheduled for April 15th, but was postponed due to rain.

Game Notes:

  • UNC falls to 8-10 this season in games where the opponent scores first.
  • Six different pitchers saw action in the seventh inning (Hansen Butler, Zach Rice, and Trent Thornton for UNC–Blair Betts, Keaton Haack, and Julian Abreu for Greensboro).
  • Trevor Kelley extended his NCAA lead in relief appearances when he replaced Hunter Williams in the third. He has now pitched in 32 of the Tar Heels’ 45 games.

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