The Diamond Heels scored eight runs in the first three innings and got four innings of no-hit relief from Jackson Rose in a 9-3 win against East Carolina Sunday at Boshamer Stadium. UNC has now advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals for a third consecutive season.
“Our guys, they showed up,” said head coach Scott Forbes after the game. “Phenomenal group. The definition of a ‘team.’ I see guys celebrating that aren’t everyday players. That’s the mark of a great team.”
UNC blitzed the Pirates in the game’s opening stages, scoring two runs in the first, three in the second and three in the third to take an 8-1 lead after three innings. Sloppy Pirate defense paved the way for the first-inning rally, as Gavin Gallaher scored after East Carolina committed an error on what would have been the inning’s final out. Tyler Howe drove in Owen Hull with a single in the next at bat.
UNC loaded the bases with nobody out in the second, and Hull picked up an RBI the hard way after getting hit by ECU ace Ethan Norby’s first pitch of the day out of the bullpen. Erik Paulsen, who would go on to be named the regional’s Most Outstanding Player, drove in two more runs with a single later in the inning.
“We wanted to strike early,” Forbes said. “That helps. It puts more pressure on them, makes them make decision. They had to go to Norby early, and he’s their best guy… we had a couple big swings of the bat against him and didn’t let him settle in, so that was big for us.”
On the mound, starting pitcher Folger Boaz allowed only one run in 3.1 innings, though he did leave with the bases loaded in favor of Walker McDuffie in the fourth. McDuffie promptly induced a double play to end the inning. McDuffie would eventually yield to Rose for the final four innings, and the freshman lefty was sensational: only one baserunner allowed – on a walk – alongside four strikeouts to earn his fourth win of the season. He threw only 41 pitches across those four innings.
“Rosie was outstanding,” Forbes said of his freshman hurler.
“I didn’t know what the [pitching] plan was,” Rose said. “I just went out there and pitched every pitch I could and got out of every inning I could. And if they were gonna let me go back out there, I was gonna do everything I could to make us win.”
As a team, UNC’s pitching staff allowed just eight runs in 27 innings of baseball across the weekend and never allowed more than two runs in any single inning. McDuffie appeared in every game, throwing 48 total pitches.
Carolina finishes the Chapel Hill Regional with a 3-0 record on its way to the Super Regionals, completing its first unbeaten regional weekend since 2019. UNC is also now 9-1 in 10 all-time postseason meetings with the Pirates. In the Super Regionals next weekend, Carolina will face either No. 12 overall seed Texas A&M or USC.
Featured image via UNC Baseball on Twitter
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