Three up, three down: Takeaways from UNC baseball's game one win over Virginia Tech

The North Carolina baseball team beat Virginia Tech 9-1 in game one of a weekend series on Thursday afternoon. Here are three positive and three negative takeaways from the team’s victory:

THREE UP 

Positives of the win:

Brandon Martorano: UNC’s sophomore catcher went 3-4 on Thursday, accounting for five of the Tar Heels nine runs. From the plate, Martorano singled up the middle to bring in the first run of the game, hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning to double the score to 4-0, then singled up the middle to bring home North Carolina’s last run of the game. In eight consecutive starts, Martorano has had nine hits. He also has hit .300 during that stretch and has been a big part of the team's success as of late. With one more win, the team will clinch the Coastal Division.

Cooper Criswell: A big part of the win was due to the work of the junior pitcher from the mound. In seven innings, Criswell struck out six and allowed no walks. While he gave up eight hits, he passed the ball onto Brett Daniels in the eighth without giving up any runs.

Fielding: Behind Criswell was solid play from the defense. In three instances throughout the game, fielders worked out of a jam with the bases loaded. In the second inning, the team forced a line drive to second base to keep the Hokies scoreless. In the fourth inning, Criswell gave up a double to center field, but junior center fielder Brandon Riley relayed it to sophomore shortstop Ike Freeman to throw out a runner at home. In the ninth, the team closed out the game with the bases loaded again. For the game, the Tar Heels stranded nine Virginia Tech runners and allowed one run on 10 hits.

THREE DOWN 

In a 9-1 win, there weren't many negatives for the team. But there were some areas with room for improvement:

Strikeouts: While UNC had 12 hits from the dish, it also had 10 strikeouts in the win. During the fourth through seventh inning, when the Tar Heels scored all but two of their runs, they also had the bulk of their strikeouts (6). If the team hadn’t lost some of its opportunities, it might have won by an even bigger margin.  

Eighth inning: If not for the one run given up in the eighth inning, UNC would have had its fourth shutout of the year. Through seven innings, Criswell and the defense kept their opponent from scoring a run, even while giving up eight hits. It wasn’t until the Hokies' last two hits that the team finally got a run across the board. 

Slumps: While five players had a multi-hit game, three players finished the game without a hit. Michael Busch continued his hitting slump. After a hot start to the season, Busch has had 11 hits in 59 at-bats over the last month. After starting the last 15 games, Dallas Tessar is also entering a similar territory. Tessar hasn’t had a hit in the last five games. During that stretch, he has hit 0-16 and he has only had five hits over the last 10 games. 

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