Freshman left-hander Hunter Williams tossed six scoreless innings, and allowed just three hits, carrying the UNC baseball team to a 6-0 shutout victory over the Liberty Flames on Wednesday night at Boshamer Stadium.
Over his last three starts, all mid-week games (vs Appalachian State, at Elon, and this one vs Liberty), the freshman has now thrown eighteen innings, while giving up just two runs and seven hits combined.
The Tar Heels are now 2-0 on their current homestand, and improve their record to 20-13 with the non-conference victory. Liberty drops its second consecutive game, but still has an impressive record of 21-12, even with the loss.
Williams (3-1), a big 6’3″ pitcher with a fastball topping out around 93 miles per hour, struggled with his control in the early portion of the game, walking two batters in the first inning, and another in the second. However, that fastball was put to good use, as Williams also struck five men out in the first three frames to keep the Flames off the board.
Head coach Mike Fox says that Williams’ recovery completely changed the flow of the game.
“It’s funny how you go from being basically one batter, or maybe one or two pitches from coming out of the game, to throwing six innings,” says Fox, “That’s how crazy the game is, because if we had to go to our bullpen in the first inning, it would have been an entirely different game.”
Landon Lassiter kept Liberty off the board in the fifth with this diving catch in left-field. (UNC Athletics)
Stranding six Flames on base through that time period proved to be key for the UNC defense, as the Tar Heel bats were asleep early on. They picked up just one hit against Liberty starting pitcher Shawn Clowers (7-2) through four innings–a second inning single from right-fielder Tyler Ramirez, the team’s hottest hitter (seven RBI in the previous two games leading into Wednesday).
Liberty threatened to score the game’s first run with two outs in the top of the fifth, but Landon Lassiter made an incredible diving catch to end the inning, and keep the Flames’ from driving in the man they had on third base.
And then in the bottom of the fifth, Ramirez was hit by pitch to lead-off the inning, which set up a huge opportunity for UNC. Adrian Chacon followed with a walk to set the Tar Heels up with two men on and no outs, still with just one hit. After Ramirez advanced to third base on Eli Sutherland’s fly-out, freshman Zack Gahagan broke out of his recent slump, smacking an RBI single through the right side of the infield to give Carolina the first run, and lead, of the night.
They would eventually load the bases with two outs, still in the fifth, for Tuesday’s offensive leader, designated hitter Adam Pate. But keeping with the team’s biggest flaw to this point in the year, Pate would ground out to end the inning, stranding three men, and keeping the Flames within striking distance.
The man who decided to fix that issue, was likely the last one anyone could have expected. Eli Sutherland, a junior college transfer, who is not very big (to say the least), came up with the bases loaded in the very next inning. And he would deliver the game’s most important hit, clearing the bases with a three-run double, scoring Landon Lassiter, Tyler Ramirez, and Korey Dunbar to give Williams a four-run cushion.
“It felt pretty good,” says Sutherland, “My first two at-bats I felt like I wasn’t as aggressive as I wanted to be, but after I laid off the 1-0 changeup, I felt like he was coming at me with the fastball, so I wanted to get my hands out early on it.”
Pitching coach Scott Forbes would not allow his starter to go back out for the seventh, though, as he had already thrown 109 pitches. For the night Williams went six scoreless innings, giving up just three hits, while striking out six in his third straight winning performance.
Eli Sutherland’s three-run double in the bottom of the sixth. (UNC Athletics)
Coming on for Williams to begin the seventh was sophomore reliever AJ Bogucki. He would allow the first two men he faced to reach base, forcing the UNC coaching staff to turn to the NCAA leader in relief appearances, senior Trevor Kelley, yet again.
Throughout all this, Williams placed full trust in his relievers, despite some recent struggles out of the bullpen.
“I had full faith in them,” says Williams.
“All you can do when you come in from the bullpen is try to get that first guy out. That’s probably the biggest point of coming out of the bullpen is to get the first guy.”
Of course, as he’s done all year long, Kelley pitched two more scoreless innings to preserve the shutout, giving up just one hit in the process.
Insurance then found the Tar Heels in the bottom of the eighth, as catcher Korey Dunbar drilled a two-run homer to put the Flames in an even deeper hole for freshman reliever Hansen Butler, who was chosen to close it out in the ninth.
Butler held Liberty without a run in his first shot at pitching a ninth inning, making sure the shutout was kept intact.
Up Next:
Rivalry week heats up heading into the weekend, as the NC State Wolfpack make the short drive across the triangle to take on the Tar Heels in a three-game ACC series beginning on Friday at 7:30 p.m. The first game of the series will be televised on ESPNU, and all games will be carried live on WCHL’s radio airwaves.
Game Notes:
- This game was another rematch for UNC, as they previously beat Liberty 6-4 at the beginning of March.
- Right-fielder Tyler Ramirez picked up his third straight multi-hit game, going 2-3 with a double and a hit by pitch.
- UNC only left four men on base for the game, a vast improvement from recent games.
- Dunbar’s home run was his fourth of the year, tying him for the team lead with outfielders Tyler Ramirez and Skye Bolt.
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