The North Carolina Tar Heels’ baseball program closed out their final home series in a big way — a three-game sweep of NC State.
The Diamond Heels completed the sweep on Saturday afternoon, sending off the seniors on a positive note in front of the crowd at Boshamer Stadium with a 12-2 win to cap off the three-game series sweep. It also comes at a big time for the program with just one week left in the regular season.
UNC improved to 33-17 overall and 13-11 in the ACC, as they sit right in the middle of the pack for the Coastal Division.
Game 1: UNC 9, NC State 8
After falling behind 5-0 in the first inning, it looked like a game the Tar Heels could be blown out in. But the Diamond Heels rallied scoring four in the bottom of the third to trim the lead to 5-4. The Wolfpack scored one in the fourth and fifth, while UNC added one in the fifth as well.
UNC trailed 8-5 going into the eighth the Diamond Heels scored two in each of the final two frames. That included a walk-off squeeze bunt as you see below:
Squeeze play for the win!!! #GoHeels pic.twitter.com/lJE5cPOYjN
— Carolina Baseball (@DiamondHeels) May 12, 2023
Game 2: UNC 9, NC State 3
This time, it was UNC that got off to the quick start and they never looked back. The Tar Heels scored one in the third and followed it up with a three-run fourth inning to grab the 4-0 lead.
They added one in the fifth, one in the sixth and then three more in the seventh to grab a big lead. NC State got one in the seventh and two in the eighth but never really made it close.
Johnny Castagnozzi led the way with three RBI while Casey Cook had two RBI in the game.
Game 3: UNC 12, NC State 2
This one was all Tar Heels from the start. UNC dominated this game, scoring in each of the first five innings including three in the first, third and fourth innings.
Holding a 11-0 lead after five innings, UNC shut the door on the ice-cold Wolfpack bats. On the day, UNC recorded 18 hits with Cook and Jackson Van De Brake having three each. Nine of UNC’s 10 batters had a hit in the game.