The Tar Heels are coming off an 8-3 homestand that ended with a 6-0 win over No. 17 Virginia on Saturday in the back end of a doubleheader. Junior college transfers Jake Knapp and Matt Poston combined to toss a five-hit shutout to send the Cavaliers to their first loss of the season behind the bat of Mac Horvath, who drove in three runs and hit his eighth home run of the season. Johnny Castagnozzi blasted his first homer of the year and Carolina shut out Virginia for the first time since 2011.
BULLPEN HAS BEEN ON CUE: In 15.0 innings pitched in three games against Virginia over the weekend, six Carolina relievers combined for 20 strikeouts against five walks with a 2.40 ERA … Will Sandy (7) and Kevin Eaise (9) combined to strike out 16 Cavaliers Friday night in 6.1 innings … Matt Poston tossed 4.2 scoreless innings with three strikeouts to earn the win over UVA on Saturday … The Cavaliers were a mere 6-of-31 (.195) against the Tar Heels bullpen with runners on base … Nelson Berkwich and Cameron Padgett are tied for second in the ACC with eight appearances each, while Ben Peterson and Matt Poston are tied for 10th with seven appearances … Poston leads the Tar Heels with five games finished … Of the six UNC pitchers that have thrown five or more innings of relief, five of them are holding opposing hitters under a .232 batting average … Opponents are hitting a mere .087 against Poston and .189 versus Cameron Padgett … Of the 10 pitchers to throw at least 3.0 innings out of the bullpen, seven of them are averaging more than a strikeout per inning … Freshman Matthew Matthijs is averaging 2.21 and graduate Will Sandy is averaging 1.9 strikeouts per inning out of the bullpen. Kevin Eaise (1.67), Nik Pry (1.5) Nelson Berkwich (1.4), Dalton Pence (1.3) and Ben Peterson (1.1) are also averaging more than a strikeout per inning.
BOSH BOMBERS: The Tar Heels are tied for 14th nationally in home runs with 33, which tied for third-most in the ACC behind Wake Forest (36) and NC State (35), and alongside Miami (33) … After hitting 101 home runs last season, UNC is on pace to hit 108 home runs in 2023, which would tie the school record set by the 2002 squad … By…
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