The No. 5 North Carolina baseball team came out on top Friday against the N.C. State Wolfpack, 7-2, in what was the first of the three-game series.
What happened?
Zeros filled the scoreboard through five innings. Tar Heel right-handed ace J.B. Bukauskas and N.C. State’s left-handed starter Sean Adler proved tough through this particular stretch, only allowing three baserunners each.
But then, in the sixth inning, the bats awoke.
The Wolfpack kicked off the festivities. N.C. State's Stephen Pitarra sent Bukauskas’ no-hitter hopes out the window after he lined a fastball over North Carolina’s first basemen. Two batters later, Josh McLain drove Pitarra home, breaking the scoreless affair. Bukauskas ended up escaping the three-hit fifth inning, stranding two Wolfpack runners at the corners.
In the bottom of the sixth, North Carolina responded with a big offensive half-inning of their own. After Logan Warmoth’s drag bunt down the third baseline that got him on base, Kyle Datres hit a two-run home run over the left-field wall to garner a lead the Tar Heels wouldn’t relinquish.
The two-run six was followed by a three-run seventh. Brian Miller’s single through the right side drove in Tyler Lynn, Warmoth’s single to right-center brought home Busch and McGee’s groundout to third base brought Miller home.
The scoring didn’t stop there; the eighth inning featured two more Tar Heel scores. Cody Roberts homered over the left-field wall to drive himself and Brandon Riley in.
The Wolfpack loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the ninth, but their offensive efforts proved futile in the end. After a North Carolina pitching change in the middle of the ninth — which substituted Josh Hiatt for Hutchinson — the Tar Heels were able to escape the final inning more or less unscathed, only allowing one run.
