The Diamond Heels brought out the brooms at Boshamer Stadium Sunday afternoon, using a five-run eighth inning to pull away from Pittsburgh and earn another series sweep in 2022.
Carolina’s top four hitters of Vance Honeycutt, Angel Zarate, Tomas Frick and Johnny Castagnozzi raked all day long, combining for nine of the team’s 13 hits on the day. Zarate extended his hitting streak to 16 games and his on-base streak to 39 games, which ties a career-high, with an RBI single to bring in Honeycutt in the first and get UNC on the board.
Pittsburgh took the lead in the fifth on a two-run home run, but Castagnozzi knotted things up in the sixth with his second home run in as many days, a rope down the left field line. In the seventh, Pittsburgh elected to intentionally walk Zarate after a Honeycutt double with two outs. That brought up Frick, who made the Panthers pay with a two-RBI double to put the Tar Heels back in front.
Carolina held a 4-2 lead before the floodgates opened in the eighth. A bases-loaded walk, followed by three consecutive RBI singles from Zarate, Frick and Castagnozzi extended Carolina’s lead to 9-2 and put the game out of reach for the Panthers.
Connor Bovair, making his third start of the season, gave head coach Scott Forbes five strong innings on the mound, but it was Kyle Mott who picked up his fourth win of the season with 2.2 innings of one-hit relief. Despite not starting a game this season, Mott leads the UNC pitching staff in wins. Shawn Rapp slammed the door with a four-out save (he took the mound with UNC up by just two runs), which began with a strikeout to get out of a two-men-on, two-out jam in the top of the eighth.
The victory clinched the first sweep in an ACC-opening series for Carolina since 2013. Its 14-2 start is the program’s best since 2016. The team will have a chance to improve on its 14-0 mark at Boshamer Stadium with two mid-week games, the first against VMI on Tuesday at 4 p.m. ACC play will continue next weekend with Carolina’s first full road series of the year at Duke.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Anthony Sorbellini
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