Riding the red-hot bat of freshman third baseman Mac Horvath, the No. 6-seedUNC baseball team closed out its run in the ACC Tournament on Friday night in Charlotte with a 9-6 victory over rival NC State.

Horvath hit his first college grand slam in the top of the first inning and drove in a career-high six runs, as the Tar Heels (27-25) won for the first time in four tries against the No. 3 seed Wolfpack (29-16).

The Minnesota native has collected 18 of his 21 total RBIs over the last 10 games, a period which also includes four of his five home runs as well.

His grand slam on Friday keyed a six-run first-inning for UNC and was the first Tar Heel grand slam since Ashton McGee did it against Liberty back in April of 2019.

Horvath then drove a 3-2 pitch into left field for an RBI single for the first of two UNC runs in the second inning, a play that was soon followed up by a run-scoring double by Tomas Frick — giving the Tar Heels a commanding 8-0 lead.

NC State answered with three runs in the third inning against First Team All-ACC pitcher Austin Love, but Horvath struck again in the top of the fourth with a sacrifice fly which would end up being the last time UNC would score in the game.

With that sac fly, Horvath became the first Tar Heel to collect six RBIs in a single game since April 2019 when current shortstop Danny Serretti accomplished the feat against Boston College. It was also the most RBIs by a UNC player in a postseason game since the turn of the century.

NC State would go on to add a run in the fourth inning and two more in the eighth, but that would not be enough to overcome Horvath’s historic night.

The Wolfpack –who defeated Pitt earlier this week after Pitt beat UNC — still moved on to the tournament semifinals on Saturday by virtue of the pool-play tiebreaker, which states that the highest-seeded of the three teams moves on if each goes 1-1 against each other.

Up Next:

UNC will now wait to hear its NCAA Tournament fate on Monday at noon during the NCAA Baseball selection show on ESPN2.

 

FINAL BOX SCORE

 

Photo via UNC Athletics

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