A 5-0 deficit in the first inning didn’t stop the Diamond Heels from earning a dramatic victory against NC State in Chapel Hill Thursday night. Carolina trailed until the very last play of the game, when a suicide squeeze bunt from Colby Wilkerson drove in the game-winning run for a thrilling 9-8 UNC win.

NC State’s five-run first inning came courtesy of just a 0.1 inning outing from starter Connor Bovair, who retired his first batter but then issued consecutive walks and a three-run home run. Bovair then allowed a double and another walk before being lifted, concluding his shortest start of the season by far. Both Wolfpack runners would come around to score.

The Tar Heels got back in the game in the third, using an RBI groundout and a pair of doubles from Vance Honeycutt and Tomas Frick to put up four runs in the frame. The Wolfpack responded with runs in the next two innings, but Carolina appeared primed to tie the game or take the lead in the bottom of the fifth after it loaded the bases with nobody out. Johnny Castagnozzi was then hit by a pitch to drive in a run, but a strikeout and a pop out ended the threat with just one run scored and NC State still leading 7-5.

One Wolfpack run in the seventh and a pair of Carolina runs in the eighth sent the game to the ninth with NC State leading 8-7. Hunter Stokely drew a leadoff walk before being lifted for pinch runner Reece Holbrook, who advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt (as it turned out, only UNC’s second-most important bunt of the inning). Pinch hitter Eric Grintz then ripped a triple into right field to score Holbrook, tying the game for the first time since the opening frame. Carter French entered the game for Grintz as a pinch runner, and he scampered home on a Wilkerson’s squeeze bunt.

The win snaps a five-game losing streak to NC State in Boshamer Stadium, but also stands as Carolina’s fifth win in the last six games against the Wolfpack. UNC is now back above .500 in ACC play at 12-11 and 31-17 overall. Its next two games against the Wolfpack on Friday and Saturday are both sold out, with first pitch on Friday scheduled for 7 p.m. It will be broadcast on ACC Network.

 

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Ainsley E. Fauth

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