For the third year running, Scott Forbes and the Diamond Heels opened their season with a sweep at Boshamer Stadium, this one coming against Indiana. Each game was different from the rest, and we got a pretty good look at a lot of the guys, new and old, who are going to feature heavily for this team as the season continues.
The Friday game followed a pretty familiar script to UNC fans who watched a lot of last season. For four and a half innings, both starting pitchers stymied the opposing lineups. Jason DeCaro went 5.0 scoreless, allowing 2 hits and walking 3 while striking out 7. His counterpart, Tony Neubeck, threw 4 scoreless innings, with just one hit and 3 walks to 2 strikeouts. He was pulled after 62 pitches and UNC jumped on his replacement, Reagan Rivera. In the fifth, the Heels got 3 of the first 4 men on base via two singles and a walk before a Jake Schaffner sac fly opened the scoring and a Gavin Gallaher triple on the next at-bat brought in two more runs. Indiana scratched back with a two-run 6th against Caden Glauber, who came in to replace DeCaro. Glauber is a freshman that Forbes has been talking about as somebody who will contribute a lot of innings this year like Ryan Lynch and Walker McDuffie did last year, but he didn’t have as auspicious a debut as either. He showed some real stuff, running the fastball up to 96 with good movement, but struggled to throw strikes. He walked the bases full around two outs before giving up a 2-run single. After Walker McDuffie recorded the 3rd out of the inning, the Heels struck back, putting together a 6-spot in the bottom of the sixth that put the game away. It started by taking advantages of some Indiana mistakes before extra-base hits from Tyler Howe, Colin Hynek, and Jake Schaffner finished the job, making the score 9-2.
From there, the big story was Boston Flannery, who came in to begin the 7th. The highly-recruited Flannery had thrown just 6 innings the last two years and had struggled to throw strikes in all his previous appearances, but there had been talk out of the program that he had turned a corner and was ready to be a contributor. Indeed, he looked by far the best he ever has in Tar Heel blue. He finished with a line of 2.1 IP, 2 K, 2 BB, and 0 ER, though Indiana did get across two runs in the 9th thanks to an error in the field.
The other two games were played as a doubleheader on Saturday, and they were wildly different both from Friday’s game and from each other. The first started with a little more action than Friday’s, with Jake Schaffner leading off for UNC with a single, stealing second, and eventually coming around to score on an Erik Paulsen single. On the other side, Folger Boaz looked nigh unhittable for 2 innings before giving up an equalizing run in the 3rd via a hit batter and a double. He bounced back, though, and ended with a line of 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 hits, 6 K, 2 BB, and one hit batter. The Heels again took the lead in the 5th via an Erik Paulsen 3-run home run, the Heels’ first of the year, and again sealed it with a six-run 6th that featured runs coming in via HBP, walk, and fielding error. A Rom Kellis double and another error in the field for the Hoosiers in the 7th were enough to give UNC a run-rule victory, 12-2.
Indiana finally took a lead in the first inning of the second leg, getting a couple of singles off Ryan Lynch and manufacturing a run. It didn’t last very long, as the Heels got one back in the 2nd on a Tyler Howe single. That could have been a bigger inning, as the Heels had the bases loaded with one out, but failed to capitalize in what was a microcosm of the game for UNC. Lynch settled in and spun a pretty similar start to his fellow starters: 5 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER, 6 K, 2 BB, 1 HBP, but his offense didn’t give him any run support, stranding runners nearly every inning. Glauber got another opportunity after Lynch and got out of the 6th quickly before getting in trouble again in the 7th with two 2-out walks. That high-leverage situation got us our first look at Matthew Matthijs since his season-ending injury last year, and he induced a ground ball that should have ended the inning if not for a throwing error from Schaffner. The Hoosiers made good on their lifeline with a 2-run single that gave them a 3-1 lead before Matthijs got out of the inning. He retired the next 6 batters he faced, giving his team a chance, and after a 1-2-3 8th, the Heels got the first 2 batters on in the 9th. Owen Hull nearly walked it off with a fly ball to center, but Boshamer Stadium just held it in, and Macon Winslow hit a soft fly ball to short, putting the pressure on pinch hitter Lee Sowers to bring his teammates home. What happened next, well…
After the way last season ended, I’m sure UNC fans are more than sympathetic to something like this. UNC tied the game on that error but couldn’t scratch the last run over, and the game went to extras. The Heels shut down the Hoosiers in the 10th and loaded the bases with 2 outs, but couldn’t get over the hump, then retired Indiana in short order again in the 11th. Macon Winslow came up to lead off the bottom of the inning and walked it off with a homer off the scoreboard, his first as a Tar Heel. The Heels finished the game having stranded 15 runners and batting 2/17 with runners in scoring position, but they did end up with the sweep. I suppose it’s good that they already had the series won, so that botched throw to first doesn’t end up meaning too much for either team in the bigger picture.
UNC plays two midweek games for each of their first three weeks of the schedule. This week, they’ll host Richmond on Tuesday and Longwood on Wednesday before their yearly home/neutral/away series against ECU this upcoming weekend. Kyle Percival, who did not throw against Indiana, will start Tuesday’s game, while Wednesday’s starter has not yet been announced.
Batting Leaders (among players with 2 PA/game and 75% of games played)
- Batting Average: C/DH Colin Hynek, .500
- On-Base Percentage: Hynek, .615
- Slugging Percentage: Hynek, .800
- Home Runs: C/DH Macon Winslow and 1B Erik Paulsen, 1
- Runs Batted In: Paulsen, 5
- Hits: Hynek and SS Jake Schaffner, 5
- Runs: Winslow and 3B Cooper Nicholson, 4
- Stolen Bases: Hynek and Schaffner, 1
Pitching Leaders (in the future, this will be among players with 1 IP/game; for now, I’ll set the line at 2 IP)
- ERA: Jason DeCaro, Boston Flannery, and Matthew Matthijs, 0.00
- Strikeouts: DeCaro, 7
- Innings Pitched: DeCaro, Folger Boaz, and Ryan Lynch, 5.0
- Wins: DeCaro and Boaz, 1
- Saves: none
- Batting Average Against: Matthijs and Flannery, .111