DURHAM, N.C. — No. 19 North Carolina overcame an early five-run deficit to beat Miami 7-5 in an 11-inning thriller to advance to the ACC Championship Semifinals against Boston College on Saturday, May 25 at 1 p.m. Austin Love, Joey Lancellotti and Hansen Butler combined to throw 9.2 innings out of the bullpen limiting the Hurricanes to just one run on four hits as Love set career highs in innings pitched (6.1) and strikeouts (6).
At the plate, Michael Busch's game-tying two-run home run in the eighth inning sparked the Heels while Ike Freeman produced the game-winning sacrifice fly in the 11th inning to secure the game for the Tar Heels.
Key Moments
- Miami scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning on five hits, three of them opposite field doubles, to take a 3-0 lead.
- A solo home run from Miami's Alex Toral in the third inning gave the Hurricanes a 5-0 lead.
- Carolina's bat came alive in the fourth inning as they scored two runs to make it 5-2. Danny Serretti got the Heels on the board with a single up the middle that scored Dylan Harris from second base to make it 5-1 before Ike Freeman followed with a single to score Aaron Sabato from third.
- With runners on second and third in the bottom of the fourth inning, Austin Love slammed the door with a bit strikeout to keep it a 5-2 game.
- Brandon Martorano blasted a massive home run, his sixth of the year, in the fifth inning to make it 5-3.
- Michael Busch tied the game with one swing of the bat in the eighth inning as he blasted a two-run home run to right field to make it 5-5.
- In the top of the 11th inning, Danny Serretti hit a ball to the shortstop with one out. Angel Zarate was standing on second base, after coming in to pinch run for Aaron Sabato who doubled in the previous at bat, and broke for third on contact and slid in seconds before the tag was applied to put runners on the corners with one out for the Tar Heels.
- Ike Freeman gave the Heels their first lead of the game with a long sacrifice fly to left field that scored Zarate seconds before the throw came to the plate to make it 6-5.
Notables
- Austin Love set a new career high in both strikeouts (6) and innings pitched (6.1) Friday afternoon against the Hurricanes. His previous highs were four strikeouts against Virginia Tech on March 23 and 4.0 innings against Miami on March 14 and NC State on May 18.
- This is Love's third appearance against Miami this season. In the previous two, he threw a combined 5.0 innings and only gave up one hit while shutting out the Hurricanes. In total, he has thrown 11.1 innings against Miami and only given up one run on four total hits.
- Brandon Martorano hit his sixth home run of the season in the fifth inning.
- Aaron Sabato extended his career best reached base streak to 20 games when he was hit by a pitch in the 4th inning.
- Michael Busch hit his 13th home run of the season in the eighth inning to extend his career best, and team best, reached base streak to 30 games. His 13 home runs ties him for the team lead with Aaron Sabato.
- Sabato and Busch have now combined for 16 home runs on the season, the most by a Tar Heel duo since Dustin Ackley (22) and Levi Michael (13) combined for 35 in 2009.
- Carolina is now 15-1 on the year when hitting two or more home runs.
- This is the first time all year that UNC has come back to win when trailing after 7 innings. Previously, UNC was 0-15 this season.
- First back-to-back extra-inning games in the ACC Championship since 2013 when the Tar Heels went on to win the ACC Championship game 4-1 over Virginia Tech.
- UNC is now 4-0 on the year when going in to extra innings.
- The Tar Heels had eight hits from eight different players on Friday.
- UNC is now 16-14 when being out-hit this season. In 2018, UNC was 3-13 when being out-hit.
