The North Carolina baseball team secured a 6-5 comeback victory over Purdue in extra innings to finish off the team's weekend in Minneapolis. The Tar Heel defense weathered early scoring from the Boilermakers before a momentum shift in the seventh inning opened up the scoring for UNC.
What happened?
Purdue came out swinging with Skyler Hunter hitting a leadoff double to start. A sacrifice bunt advanced Hunter to third and outfielder Ben Nisle sent him home on an infield single to give the Boilermakers an early one-run lead.
From then on, it was all defense until the fifth inning. Purdue's first-year pitcher, Jett Jackson kept the Tar Heels hitless through the next four innings.
The Boilermakers opened up the sixth with plenty of offense, racking up back-to-back doubles to bump the Purdue lead to 3-0. The Boilermakers finished with a pinch-hit RBI from Justin Fugitt to end the inning with three runs.
The defense was revived for North Carolina, who survived the seventh without giving up another run and left a pair of Boilermakers stranded on base.
The Tar Heels' offense came alive in the bottom of the seventh, with a lead-off single from Danny Serretti followed by a two-run homer from Joey Lancellotti over the left wall coming off an 0-2 count.
North Carolina scored its third run of the inning when Hunter lost Tyler Causey's hit in the sun, giving the UNC pinch hitter his second RBI of the season. North Carolina's big inning was stifled when Aaron Sabato was caught off first base, leaving two Tar Heels on second and third.
The Tar Heels opened the bottom of the eighth with back-to-back singles from Serretti and Lancellotti. Will Schroeder sent Serretti home to secure his first RBI of the season, followed by Patrick Alvarez hitting a single to score Lancellotti and make it a tie game in the eighth.
