After winning the weekend series against East Carolina, the North Carolina Tar Heels took care of business during the week.
Carolina (8-1, 0-0 ACC) hosts the 2016 NCAA Tournament champions Coastal Carolina Chanticleers in the final series of the weekend before the ACC game.
Below is the schedule for the weekend:
UNC Baseball’s upcoming schedule
| Dated | Time | Opponent |
|---|---|---|
| Dated | Time | Opponent |
| 03/04/2022 | 4:00 p.m. | against Coastal Carolina |
| 05/03/2022 | 2:00 p.m. | against Coastal Carolina |
| 03/06/2022 | 1:00 p.m. | against Coastal Carolina |
After knocking ECU out of most polls, here’s an update on UNC in the national polls:
- D1Baseball.com: 24
- Baseball America: n/a
- National Association of College Baseball Writers: 27
- College Baseball Diary: 21
- USA TODAY Coach Poll: 24
On Tuesday, Carolina hosted Longwood. Freshman Vance Honeycutt kicked things off for the Tar Heels in the first with a solo shot. In the third, Honeycutt was driven by Angel Zarate. The redshirt junior’s RBI would be the difference in this game.
In the sixth, the UNC offense exploded. With the bases loaded, two straight walks put the UNC runners on home plate. Then second-year wide receiver Tomas Frick hit a grand slam. Hunter Stokely capped the sixth by eight runs with two RBIs of two.
The Tar Heels added four more points in the eighth for a final aggregate of 16-1.
Siena transfer Connor Bovair made his first Carolina start, while junior Kyle Mott picked up the win.
Winthrop traveled to Chapel Hill on Wednesday evening. Shortstop Danny Serretti started the scoring in the first with an RBI brace.
The Eagles responded early in the second, but the Tar Heels scored enough in the bottom half of the second to go the distance.
Sophomore Alberto Osuna hit a two-run homer, while Zarate and Frick each homered.
Johnny Castagnozzi continued the scoring with a solo shot in the third and Zarate added another RBI in the fourth for the last run scored for UNC.
The Tar Heels allowed a few more points but held on for an eventual 7-3 victory.
With his two-hit performance, Zarate is on a nine-game hitting streak to start the season and his on-base streak dating back to last season continues to 32 straight games.
Carolina kicked off by the committee Wednesday night with eight Tar Heels taking the mound.
Coastal Carolina (7-2) is ranked no. 29 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, and received votes in the NCBWA and USA TODAY Coaches polls.
The Chanticleers beat a ranked team from Central Michigan early in the season and went 4-0 at the Carolinas Coastline Classic, a five-team event hosted by Coastal Carolina.
With starts in all nine games, junior Eric Brown posted a .419 batting average and .558 on-base percentage.
Fifth-year senior Austin White leads the team with 13 RBIs, while junior Dale Thomas hit two homers to lead Coastal.
Senior right-hander Michael Knorr leads the Chanticleers with 16 strikeouts, a 1.46 ERA and 12.1 innings pitched.
Despite holding batters to just .176 batting average, super senior Elliot Carney allowed seven earned runs in 8.2 innings of work.
Here are UNC’s individual leaders through nine games:
Clapper (minimum requirement of 2 AP/G and 75% of games played):
- Batting average: .454 – Johnny Castagozzi
- Hit percentage: 1.034 – Vance Honeycutt
- Home runs: 5 – Vance Honeycutt
- RBI: 10 – Angel Zarate and Tomas Frick
- Hits: 14 – Johnny Castagozzi
- Tracks: 15 – Vance Honeycutt
- On Base Percent: .553 – Vance Honeycutt
Pitching (minimum requirement of 1 IP/G):
- ERA: 0.00 – Max Carlson, Shawn Rapp, Davis Palermo
- Strikeouts: 13 – Shawn Rapp
- Innings pitched: 11.0 – Brandon Schaeffer
- Wins: 2 – Brandon Schaeffer
- Stops: 2 – Caden O’Brien
