ACC-opening sweep moves Diamond Heels up a spot in D1 Baseball Rankings

Winners of its past nine games, including a weekend sweep of Pitt, the UNC baseball team climbed slightly in Monday’s D1 Baseball rankings.

Since dropping two straight games to East Carolina University, there haven’t been many college baseball teams hotter than UNC.

The Diamond Heels (14-2, 3-0 ACC) are winners of their last nine matchups: VCU (Feb. 27), Longwood (28), 3-game series against Princeton (March 1-3), at Campbell (5) and Pitt (March 8-10). North Carolina’s offense scored 10 runs minimum in four of those nine games, including a season-high 13 against Princeton on March 3, plus the pitching has recovered after a rocky start.

Five UNC players, led by Casey Cook (.397), are hitting at least .300 on the season. 10 pitchers have an earned run average of under 4.00, with two starters (Folger Boaz and Jason DeCaro) combining for a 3-0 record.

With all this being said, the Diamond Heels climbed to 15th in the latest D1 Baseball Rankings.

North Carolina is fresh off a weekend sweep of Pitt (8-4, 0-3), which – despite not making the NCAA Tournament since 1995, shows a lot of early promise.

In Game One on Friday, March 8 – a 2-1 victory – Georgia transfer Parks Harber mashed his first UNC home run. Alberto Osuna drove in Kaleb Cost for the game-winning run, while the Diamond Heels’ bullpen pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Boaz.

Cook and DeCaro stole the show in Saturday’s 7-4 win, with Cook driving in five runs and DeCaro striking out a career-high six batters in 6 1/3 innings. Donofrio played hero on Sunday, delivering a walk-off single down the right field line in a 6-5 close close call.

Next up for North Carolina is a 6 p.m. Tuesday clash against Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights (10-4) dropped their past two games in a weekend series at High Point University.

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