Tag: North Carolina Tar Heels Baseball

Diamond Heels leap into D1 Baseball projections

The UNC Baseball team lands in the D1 2022 field of 64 projections as they prepare to take on Clemson in the ACC tournament.

The Diamond Heels found their swing late into the seasons and with just about a week until the selection show, one site has them mocked in the field of 64.

D1Baseball released their mock bracket for the upcoming NCAA baseball tournament and right there in the field is the Tar Heels in the Corvallis Region as a No. 2 seed.

Also in that region are: No. 1 Oregon State, No. 3 Grand Canyon and No. 4 North Dakota State.

After having a horrendous 5-11 record in April, the Diamond Heels had a remarkable 10-2 record in May to end the regular season. After sweeping Florida State, UNC ended with their home record as 29-6, contributing to an overall record of 34-19.

This late push helped UNC get off the last four in the list and jump into the 2nd seed in the Corvallis field. The Atlantic Coastal Conference leads the pack in teams on the 64 projection list, with Virginia Tech(40-11) and Louisville (38-16-1) leading the way.

As it stands, UNC would face off with the three-seed Grand Canyon and await the winner from one-seed Oregon State and fourth seed North Dakota State.

The Diamond Heels will play Clemson in the first round of the ACC tournament, and a run at the conference title could lead to another leap in the projections.

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Scott Forbes credits Hubert Davis for Diamond Heels’ turnaround

UNC baseball manager Scott Forbes revealed he talked to Hubert Davis about dealing with a losing skid.

The UNC baseball program wrapped up the regular season with a three-game sweep of No. 20 Florida State this weekend. And they are entering the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament this week playing some of their best baseball of the season.

After getting off to a good start this year, the Diamond Heels hit a road block and stumbled mid-season. At one point, it looked like their chances to reach the postseason were fading. But manager [autotag]Scott Forbes[/autotag] didn’t get down on his team and he looked to someone for some advice.

That someone was [autotag]Hubert Davis[/autotag].

Forbes and Davis have a close friendship and the manager talked to the UNC head basketball coach about the team’s struggles and what to do. Here is what he said via the Tar Heel Tribune:

“I’m lucky that I’m close with Hubert,” Forbes said after his team’s 11–0 Saturday win over Florida State in the regular-season finale to finish off its first ACC series sweep since February. “So, I’ve talked to him a lot about it. His saying the whole time was keep your eyes forward; eliminate the distractions.

“I’ve talked to our guys about it; don’t get on your phones. Don’t look at Twitter,” Forbes said. “Don’t look at what people are saying. And just focus on each other and what’s in front of them. Because you can’t do anything about what’s behind you.”

Davis’ team had their struggles mid-season before turning it around and making a run to the Final Four. So he certainly knows something about getting hot at the right time.

And for UNC fans, the hope is that the baseball team can go on a run in the coming weeks as well.

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Diamond Heels complete sweep of Seminoles at home

The Diamond Heels finishes the regular season with their brooms out as a they defend home field and sweep the Florida State Seminoles.

The last series of the regular season ended in fireworks, as the UNC baseball program (34-19) swept Florida State (32-22) to end the regular season on a bright note.

Game one was the closest game out of the three with UNC finding their swing early in the first inning. In that inning, Danny Serretti doubled to bring Angel Zarate home, and Alberto Osuna followed up with a 3 RBI home run to give UNC a 4-0 lead early. FSU fought back, scoring five unanswered runs, leading to Osuna hitting his second home run of the game, this time in walk-off fashion, bringing two runners home and giving UNC the 7-5 victory.

In game two UNC bat’s stayed hot while FSU was too inconsistent to keep up. Vance Honeycutt got things going in the 1st inning for UNC as he hit a home run to bring Serretti in. The home runs continued for the Diamond Heels as Osuna blasted the ball in the 5th, and Serretti did the same in the eighth for a grand slam. The Diamond Heels took game two 10-4.

The Diamond Heels played their best game of the season in game three, with a complete shut-out thanks to a solid pitching performance from the core. FSU was only able to muster up six hits and only walking three times, compared to UNC’s eight hits and ten walks. Zarate, Honeycutt, and Mac Horvath hit homers as UNC finished out the regular season with a series sweep and 11-0 shut-out.

The Diamond Heels finished the season out strong and now have their heels set to play in the Atlantic Coastal Conference tournament.

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UNC baseball retires Mike Fox’s number in season finale series

The UNC baseball program retired former manager Mike Fox’s number ahead of Friday’s game against Florida State.

The UNC baseball program wrapped up the 2022 regular season campaign with a sweep of Florida State over the weekend, helping carry their momentum into the postseason.

Going into Saturday’s regular-season finale against the Seminoles, the excitement was in the air after UNC walked off on Thursday and then had a big win on Friday. However, before that Friday win, the Tar Heels honored long-time manager Mike Fox with a pregame ceremony and retired his number in the process.

Fox spent 22 seasons as manager of the Diamond Heels going 948-406-1 over that time with his alma mater. He won the Atlantic Coast Conference three times and reached the College World Series seven times including the championship round in 2006 and 2007. While Fox never won it all, he was an icon at North Carolina and left the program in a great place.

“I am overwhelmed,” Fox said during the pregame ceremony via GoHeels. “I have been unbelievably blessed. I said when I retired that I was able to do what I loved, at a place that I loved with people that I loved.”

The Tar Heels are hoping to get back to the College World Series and should hear their name called in the selection show this month.

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Diamond Heels snag another series win over weekend

The Diamond Heels wins another major series as they put on another consistent performance winning the series against Wake Forest 2-1.

The Diamond Heels (31-19) have found their stride, continuing their consistent play with a series win over Wake Forest (35-16-1) this past weekend.

The first meeting in the series was a pitching and fielders dream as both teams battled throughout the game on the mound. UNC starter Max Carlson pitched five innings, giving up only four hits, four walks and two runs, a solid outing to get the series off to a good start.

Carlson struck out five hitters out of the 19 he saw. The game would stay even throughout with Wake leading 2-1 until the 6th inning where Vance Honeycutt hit a home run brining Danny Serretti in and giving the Heels a 3-2 lead.

That would mark Honeycutt’s fourth straight game with a home run and ultimately give the Diamond Heels the 3-2 victory game one.

Game two saw a lot more action from the Diamond Heels as they dominated with Wake walking their batters eight times compared to the Demon Deacons’ two. The 5th inning is where UNC put Wake on their heels with a 10-run explosion. UNC accounted for 11 total hits with 12 runs, taking game two of the series 12-3.

Game three ended the Diamond Heels’ five-game winning streak with a nightmare performance. Wake got their revenge out hitting UNC 17 to 9 and the run count resembled that. The Diamond Heels were only able to mustard up two runs compared to Wake 11, failing to get the series sweep.

The Diamond Heels have played some amazing baseball as of late and will be back in action Tuesday against UNCW (29-21).

Diamond Heels make quick work of Charleston Southern

The Diamond Heels winning ways continue as they put on another clinic beating Charleston Southern 12-1.

On Wednesday night, the UNC baseball team kept the momentum rolling with a blow-out 12-1 victory against Charleston Southern. The win was the third straight for the Tar Heels and it came at a critical time.

The Diamond Heels dominated both sides of the game, putting on a fielding clinic and gaining bases like Monopoly properties. Mac Horvath for UNC got things going early with a triple, eventually becoming one of the three runs scored in the first inning.

The second inning would only get better for the Diamond Heels as Horvath hits a home run bringing home Angel Zarate. A few at bats later, Alberto Osuna followed up with a homer, bringing in Danny Serretti and Hunter Stokely.

After scoring eight runs in the first two innings, UNC scored four more runs in the third.

Charleston’s pitching woes continued with Horvath getting hit by a pitch, and Serretti walked. Then Vance Honeycutt joined the home run party with a 3 RBI and gave the Tar Heels their last runs. Both teams failed to score again, and UNC wins 12-1.

The Diamond Heels will be back in action on May 13th with a series match-up against Wake Forest.

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Diamond Heels get swept at Virginia

The 23-17 UNC baseball team falls short in the series against the Virginia Cavaliers this past weekend.

The UNC baseball program couldn’t end their losing streak this weekend, suffering a sweep at the hands of a very good Virginia team.

After the UNC baseball team snapped Campbell University’s 12-game winning streak, they found themselves in the wrath of the No. 11 ranked Cavaliers. Virginia, currently 31-10 with a home record of 23-2, took all three games this weekend finishing off the sweep including a comeback on Saturday night.

The UNC baseball team did fight hard in two of the three games, losing the first meeting 4-2 and losing the second match-up 11-7 in extra innings. They struggled in the final game of the series on Sunday, losing 10 to 3, suffering their fifth straight three-game series loss.

In the first game of the series, Max Carlson pitched 6.2 innings, giving up three runs and four walks with four strikeouts. Brandon Schaeffer was on the mound in game two, pitching in five innings, giving up three runs, zero walks, and three strikeouts. The final game was a hitting party for the Cavaliers with UNC going to their bullpen early after Kyle Mott gave up six runs in 1.1 innings pitched.

UNC now has an away record of 3-11 and a 8-13 record in ACC play as we hit the stretch run. This hasn’t been the most fruitful start of the season, but with a month still to go before the Atlantic Coastal Conference tournament, the Diamond Heels can finish strong.

The UNC baseball team is set to take on 26-12 Liberty University Tuesday. The good thing for UNC is that this is a home game, where they have a record of 20-5. Liberty has also struggled on the road with an away record of 9-7.

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