After following up Thursday’s loss to Georgia Tech with a dominating 8-0 victory on Friday, the No. 4 Tar Heels had the tables turned on them Saturday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium–falling 6-0 to the Yellow Jackets in the series’ rubber match.
UNC (19-4, 6-3 ACC) was able to muster up just four hits all day against Georgia Tech’s combination of Zac Ryan and Burton Dulaney on the mound.
The series loss is the Tar Heels’ first of the season, as half of their losses in 2016 came this weekend.
Ryan (1-0) tossed six solid innings for the Yellow Jackets before Dulaney picked up right where he left off to pick up the final nine outs.
As well as they pitched, though, UNC’s hitters struck out just four times the entire game–getting contact often, just not to the right spots.
Georgia Tech went ahead 1-0 in the first inning against Tar Heel righty Jason Morgan (2-2), but it wasn’t until the fifth inning that the visitors flexed their muscles.
Sophomore right fielder Kel Johnson crushed a pitch from Morgan deep to center field for a two-run homer as the UNC outfielders could only turn and watch.
Two innings later–with reliever AJ Bogucki in for Morgan–Yellow Jacket second baseman Wade Bailey hit a homer of his own, a solo shot that kicked off a three-run seventh inning.
From that point on, it was painfully clear that it was simply not UNC’s day.
The Tar Heels got back-to-back, one-out singles from Eli Sutherland and Kyle Datres in their half of the seventh–but after that they had their next eight hitters retired in order to close out the game.
Up Next:
UNC will look to get back on the winning track on Tuesday, Mar. 29 as it hosts the Davidson Wildcats at home.
Game Notes:
- Total runs in the series: UNC- 10, Georgia Tech- 9
- Six times the Tar Heels had a chance to hit with runners in scoring position, but they went 0-for-6 in those situations.
- Tyler Ramirez and Tyler Lynn were the only Tar Heels besides Sutherland
- UNC had three errors in the game, which was three more than its opponent had.
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