The Diamond Heels notched yet another impressive win Friday night in Charlotte, dispatching No. 2 Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament to clinch a spot in the tournament’s semifinals on Saturday.

The Tar Heels jumped on the Hokies, the conference’s regular-season champion, early and often to take a commanding lead. Angel Zarate continued to swing a red-hot bat, leading off the top of the first inning with a double and then scoring on a Danny Serretti sacrifice fly. It was all part of a four-run first for Carolina, punctuated by a Vance Honeycutt two-run home run, his 19th of the season, and a Tomas Frick RBI single. Honeycutt is now tied with Alberto Osuna for the team lead home runs.

Zarate went yard himself in the second, and Honeycutt followed that up with his second home run in as many innings to make the score 6-0 Carolina in the blink of an eye. Serretti added a fourth home run for good measure in the fourth inning to extend that lead to 7-0. Seven of UNC’s nine hitters recorded at least two hits, with Honeycutt going 3-3 and Serretti improving his batting average to .372.

But all that offense turned out to be an unneeded luxury for starting pitcher Brandon Schaeffer, who tossed UNC’s first complete game shutout of the season. The left-hander was simply magnificent, allowing just six hits and striking out seven. He faced 31 batters, just four more than the minimum 27 required in a nine-inning game. He now has a team-best seven wins this season.

More than being an impressive feat of pitching, Schaeffer’s gem also provided much-needed rest for the Carolina bullpen, which will likely see extended action in the short turnaround from Friday night’s pool play finale into Saturday afternoon’s semifinal. The Tar Heels, winners of 13 of their last 15 games and five in a row, will take the field at 1 p.m. to face No. 16 Notre Dame, who won Pool D. The two teams haven’t met since the 2021 regular season, when the Fighting Irish swept UNC in South Bend.

 

Featured image via UNC Baseball on Twitter

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