Home runs from Macon Winslow, Erik Paulsen and Colin Hynek helped the No. 3 Diamond Heels beat No. 2 Georgia Tech 5-2 in the first game of a critical three-game ACC series at Boshamer Stadium Friday night. The UNC win snaps the Yellow Jackets’ 13-game winning streak.
“Two really good teams,” UNC head coach Scott Forbes said after the win. “Georgia Tech is a really, really good team. They’re deep. For goodness sake, they’re second pitcher was hitting 100 [miles per hour]. I have a lot of respect for Georgia Tech. Always have. We’ve had so many battles over the years.”
Winslow’s two-run blast put the capper on a three-run first inning for UNC against Georgia Tech ace Tate McKee, who suffered his first loss of the season. Hynek’s solo shot in the second and Paulsen’s in the third pushed the Carolina lead to 5-0, and that was enough run support for the UNC pitchers against the explosive Yellow Jacket offense.
Jason DeCaro, celebrating his 20th birthday Friday night, earned the win with five innings pitched while striking out four and allowing just one run. Caden Glauber tossed three innings of relief and got himself out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth, allowing just one Georgia Tech run and stranding the tying runs on base. Walker McDuffie pitched a perfect ninth to close out the UNC win.
“As a pitcher, it’s fun. It’s 1-on-1 out there,” DeCaro said. “You’re just going after them with their best stuff. Hitting’s hard. They can know what’s coming, and it’s still pretty hard. Just going after them, attacking them. They hit a couple balls hard right at guys, and that’s gonna happen. That’s baseball. Just competing and going after them.”
Glauber continued his strong season with a 58-pitch effort. The true freshman from Fort Mill, S.C. inherited runners on second and third base with nobody out in relief of DeCaro in the fifth inning, but retired each of the next three Yellow Jacket hitters while allowing just one run to score. The eighth inning, his last of the night, saw him issue two walks and allow a single with two outs to load the bases but induce a flyout to end the inning — once again with only one run coming across.
“He’s got a low heart rate out there,” DeCaro said. “The coaches were pretty adamant about us getting on him a lot in the fall, in the preseason. Because they could see it. We could all see it, that he was gonna be really good. Seeing how he’s responded to that, and how he’s able to handle those big situations, is awesome.”
Carolina’s two runs allowed tie for the fewest against the Georgia Tech offense this season. Entering Friday’s game, the Yellow Jackets led all of Division 1 with 11.3 runs scored per game. UNC’s pitching staff held that offense to just six total hits, while projected first-round picks Drew Burress and Vahn Lackey combined for zero in the top two spots of the Yellow Jackets’ lineup.
“That’s what makes it fun,” Forbes said. “That’s why you come to the University of North Carolina, because you want to play in games like this.”
Friday’s win improves UNC to 32-6-1 overall and 14-5 in ACC play, just one game behind the 15-4 Yellow Jackets. Carolina can go for the series victory Saturday at 12 p.m. in the series’ second game.
Featured image via UNC Baseball on Twitter
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