Although Wednesday night’s loss to No. 12 seed Pittsburgh closed the door on the top-seeded UNC baseball team’s chances to advance to the ACC Tournament Semifinals, the Tar Heels still had one game left to play.
They did just that on Friday afternoon at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, pitching a 9-0 shutout over the No. 8 seed Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in a game that had no impact on the tournament whatsoever.
After missing most of the season due to injury, 6-foot-6-inch sophomore right-hander Gianluca Dalatri threw five shutout innings on the mound to pick up his first victory of the season for the Tar Heels.
While Dalatri’s return is the silver lining for UNC (38-18) heading into the NCAA Tournament, the Tar Heel bats did their thing as well on Friday–with Brandon Martorano and Zack Gahagan doing the bulk of the damage with their home runs.
Both big flies came in the bottom of the third inning, which started with UNC holding a 2-0 lead. Martorano hit a three-run blast early in the inning, while Gahagan hit a two-run shot just two batters later to give the Tar Heels a commanding seven-run lead.
UNC added two more runs in the fourth inning, while continuing to hold the Yellow Jackets (31-27) in check at the plate.
Neither team manufactured a single run after that point..
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The Tar Heels will now have to wait to find out their NCAA Tournament destination, which will be announced on Monday, May 28 at 12 p.m.
Photo via UNC Athletics
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