Baseball: No. 10 Tar Heels avoid UVA sweep with 12-7 win in series finale

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

After trailing by six runs, No. 15 Virginia came all the way back to tie the game in the sixth inning only to have No. 10 North Carolina answer with six more and eventually come away with a 12-7 victory on Saturday.

The Cavaliers (25-7, 9-7 ACC) won the series, winning game one, 14-11, on Thursday and game two, 7-2, on Friday.

North Carolina (26-6, 11-4) scored six runs in the first two innings, including four in the second frame. The Cavaliers chipped away and tied the game on a Bobby Whalen, two-out, RBI single in the sixth that scored Griff O’Ferrall. Whalen led the Cavaliers three hits, his seventh multi-hit effort of the season.

Reliever Angelo Tonas was the standout on the mound for the Cavaliers. The graduate student took over on the mound in the third and kept North Carolina scoreless for the next 3.2 innings. Tonas hasn’t allowed a run in 12 of his 15 relief appearances this season.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Henry Ford led off the second inning with his fifth hit of the series and came around to score on an RBI groundout by Ethan Anderson for UVA’s first run. Ford went 6 for 13 with three homers, four RBI and five runs scored in the series.

Harrison Didawick halved the North Carolina lead in the third with a two-out RBI single up the middle that plated Whalen. The two runs were made possible when the inning was extended by a North Carolina throwing error.

Virginia rallied for three runs in its half of the sixth inning, including a pair of two out hits. An Eric Becker RBI groundout pulled UVA within two runs. O’Ferrall followed with an RBI double and then scored the game-tying run on Whalen’s single through the middle.

Tar Heel reliever Matt Poston escaped a bases loaded jam to end the sixth-inning threat and went on to earn the victory after pitching the final 3.1 innings.

North Carolina’s Parks Harber untied the game in the Tar Heels’ very next at bat. It was the first of two UNC home runs in the frame that quickly put the Heels up 9-6 just four batters into the seventh inning. Parks went 3 for 5 with a game-high four RBI.

The Tar Heels sent nine batters to the plate and only needed one hit in the eighth to make it a 12-6 ballgame.

Casey Saucke drove in UVA’s final run of the day with an RBI single up the middle in the eighth that scored Becker.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• Dean Kampschror pitched a scoreless top of the ninth and struck out two. It marked his fourth-straight appearance (3.1 IP) without allowing an earned run.
• Henry Ford has now reached base safely in 25-straight games after going 2 for 5 at the plate.
• Virginia has won three-straight ACC series against North Carolina and won eight of the last 11 meetings.
• The announced attendance was 5,919, the second sellout of the season at Disharoon Park. It marked the eighth sellout crowd in the last 24 games at Disharoon Park.

UP NEXT

Virginia will conclude its homestand on Tuesday when it hosts VCU at Disharoon Park. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m., and the game will air live on ACCNX.