The Diamond Heels hit seven home runs – tied for the team’s second-most in a single game since 2000 – en route to a 15-5 win at Pittsburgh in the first game of a three-game series with the Panthers Friday night. UNC has now won six consecutive series-opening games.

Three of those home runs came off the bat of Gavin Gallaher, who stayed red-hot at the plate and finished the day 3-5 with three runs scored and six runs batted in. It’s the fourth time in the month of April Gallaher has recorded at least three hits in a game, and the second time this month he’s hit multiple home runs in a game.

The home run derby started when Luke Stevenson clubbed the first of his two round-trippers in the first inning. Tyson Bass followed that up with a solo shot of his own in the second before Alex Madera hit his first home run of the 2025 season (and third in his UNC career) in the fourth.

Stevenson was at it again in the fifth, blasting a two-run homer to answer a pair of runs from the Panthers in the bottom of the fourth. In the next at-bat, Gallaher went back-to-back with his teammate and extended the UNC lead to 6-2. Gallaher’s second homer, a two-run shot, came in the top of the seventh to extend that lead even further.

His third came as part of a four-run rally in the eighth. With Jackson Van De Brake at second base following an RBI double and Stevenson at first following an intentional walk, Gallaher greeted a new Panther pitcher with a hat-trick-making homer, this one of the three-run variety. He is now the 10th Diamond Heel in program history to hit three home runs in a single game.

UNC added three more runs in the top of the ninth for good measure, with Van De Brake adding two more RBIs to his name in the inning. He, Stevenson and Gallaher drove in 12 of Carolina’s 15 runs.

The support was more than enough for starting pitcher Jake Knapp, who improved to 9-0 on the season with 6.1 innings pitched and eight strikeouts. Walker McDuffie recorded the game’s final eight outs, seven of which came via strikeout.

With the win, the Diamond Heels are now 32-9 overall and 14-8 in ACC play. The second game of the series in Pittsburgh is scheduled for Saturday at 3 p.m.

 

Featured image via UNC Baseball on Twitter

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