Virginia Cruises to 7-4 Series-Opening Win Over No. 15 UNC Baseball

For all the enthusiasm that Wednesday’s blowout of No. 8 South Carolina produced in Chapel Hill, the UNC baseball team had to immediately turn its focus to its road series this weekend in Charlottesville against the defending national champs.

The same fortunes that were with them in Charlotte against the Gamecocks, however, didn’t show themselves in the series opener–as the Virginia Cavaliers defeated the No. 13 Tar Heels 7-4 on Friday night.

UNC falls to 24-10 (8-8 ACC) in 2016, as ace Zac Gallen surrendered five runs in the first three innings– just one week removed from being named National Pitcher of the Week for what was easily the best performance of his career.

Zac Gallen was hit by Virginia for five runs in the first three innings on Friday. (Joe Bray/ UNC Athletics)

Junior left fielder Tyler Lynn went 3-for-3 with a home run–having himself a career night–but the Tar Heels continued to struggle since the meat of conference play began three weeks ago against Georgia Tech. In that span UNC is just 6-8.

So is life in the ACC, which boasts six of the nation’s top 25 teams–and that’s not even including Virginia.

The Cavaliers have been one of the nation’s top programs in recent years but are just 22-15 this year after losing a few key pieces.

One of Virginia’s returning stars, junior right-hander Connor Jones gave his team six solid innings of work Friday night. Jones (7-1) was far from perfect–laboring for 117 pitches and striking out just two hitters–but he did enough to get the job done.

UNC took a 2-0 lead against Jones in the top of the second inning, though, when freshman catcher Cody Roberts’ sacrifice fly was mishandled at home plate. Zack Gahagan, who had reached base on an earlier error, and Lynn scored on the play.

Jones then found his groove and forced eight groundouts over the next four frames while holding the Tar Heels scoreless.

Meanwhile, the Cavalier offense scraped across one run in their half of the second inning before taking it to Gallen in the third for four more.

UNC has had issues scoring runs at the same clip it did early on since conference play got rolling. (Joe Bray/ UNC Athletics)

Catcher Matt Thaiss, another key contributor to last year’s title-winning team, slapped an RBI single to tie the game at 2-2. After a walk loaded the bases, Nate Eikhoff cleared them with a huge triple to right-center field–giving Virginia a commanding lead.

Not until the seventh inning did UNC get another push from its offense. Lynn led off the frame with a triple against Jones–his second hit of the day–and then scored the next at-bat on a single by Roberts.

Virginia broke through for two more runs in the eighth against the Tar Heel bullpen, however, which put a damper on any comeback hopes.

Lynn hit a solo shot in the top of the ninth off closer Kevin Doherty, but the UNC rally fell short as Doherty induced a pair of flyouts before Tommy Doyle came on and struck out Tyler Ramirez to seal the deal.

Up Next:

The second game of the series is scheduled to begin Saturday at 4 p.m. with the Tar Heels sending sophomore JB Bukauskas to the mound. Bukauskas, like Gallen, had a career-high 13 strikeouts last week against Virginia Tech.

Game Notes:

Virginia has won seven of the last eight meetings between these two teams. UNC leads the all-time series 179-110-4.
Each team had just eight hits in the game. The Tar Heels are 2-2 this season in that situation.
Brian Miller, Tyler Ramirez, and Logan Warmoth–who hit first, third, and fourth for UNC–went a combined 0-for-12 on Friday.

Virginia Cruises to 7-4 Series-Opening Win Over No. 15 UNC Baseball

On Air Now: 97.9 FM