NO. 12 TAR HEELS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF HOKIE ERRORS 

BLACKSBURG – North Carolina (31-9, 13-8 ACC) pounced on Virginia Tech’s four errors to win 7-4 and secure the series on April 20 at English Field.

The Hokies (25-15, 10-11) started off strong on both sides, scoring twice in the third and only allowing the Tar Heels’ first score in the fourth inning.

Despite Tech starting pitcher Logan Eisenreich getting pulled in the middle of the second inning, relievers Preston Crowl, Cameron LeJeune, Matheiu Curtis and Jacob Exum held the potent Carolina offense to three runs through the sixth. 

In the top of the seventh, though, the Hokies fell apart.

LeJeune got Carolina’s leadoff out to start the inning, Hunter Stokely, on a nasty strikeout and Tyson Bass in the next at-bat on a flyout.

Tar Heel shortstop Alex Madera hit a hard grounder to Tech’s Clay Grady, and LeJeune seemed he would be able to get out of the inning cleanly.

However, Grady took too long to get the ball out and delivered an inaccurate ball to Sam Tackett, who made his first start at first base in a year to fill in for Anderson French, who was automatically suspended for his ejection in the previous game. 

Madera comfortably beat the throw, and the Tar Heels capitalized on the error immediately. 

On the following plate appearance, designated hitter Lee Sowers ripped a single to right field as Madera stole second. Madera was able to score, and Sowers advanced to second on the throw home. 

LeJeune then walked left fielder Carter French, bringing up Carolina’s leadoff, Kane Kepley.

Kepley popped a grounder to third that David Lewis was unable to corral cleanly. All of a sudden, an inning that should have seen only three batters had two errors, a score, and the bases loaded. 

“When our shortstop [Grady] can’t throw the ball across the infield, and it puts ‘X’ amount of pitches on LeJeune’s arm, he [would have been] out of the inning,” Tech head coach John Szefc said. “Once he’s not out of the inning, it blows into other stuff…if we play routine defense throughout the game, it’s probably a whole different story.”

The salvo kept going, as Jackson Van De Brake shot a line drive to right field, sending Sowers and French home, advancing Kepley to third, and bumping the Tar Heel lead up to 6-2. 

Szefc pulled LeJeune for Brendan Yagesh to finish the frame, but Kepley stole home, and Yagesh did not step off the rubber to throw him out. 

Catcher Henry Cooke stepped up to tag Kepley out, but, because Yagesh never stepped off, the umpires called catcher’s interference on Cooke and a balk on Yagesh. The final error committed by Tech took Kepley home for Carolina’s final score. 

In the fourth inning, Carolina got its first score off an error as well.

Nick Locurto, who made his first career ACC start, had a ground ball get by him in right field, allowing Madera to score from first. 

Three of the Hokies’ four errors directly allowed Carolina to score and Grady’s throw to first set up the Tar Heels' three-run inning to make the game out of reach. 

“You can’t expect to beat a team like that when you’re making those kinds of errors and give them extra free bases,” Szefc said. “It wasn’t like they were killing it. We just didn’t make routine plays.”

David McCann tried to jump-start the Hokies’ offense in the eighth with a two-run blast, batting in Ben Watson.

Of the final four at-bats after McCann, none of them reached a bag. 

The Tech offense could not produce the same magic as last game, only totalling five hits.

Ben Watson had an excellent game to cap off his productive weekend, going two for two from the plate and drawing two walks on the day.

“I was trying not to hit the pitches they wanted me to hit and then hit the mistakes [UNC made],” Watson said. “I just had to make sure whenever they missed a little bit over the plate that I didn’t miss.”

Tech’s pitching inconsistency also put them in tough situations all game, and likely fatigued the defense fighting through many loaded bases for Carolina. 

Szefc put out a season-high nine relievers after Eisenreich was done, including Chase Swift, who recently suffered a shoulder injury.

The Hokies knew it would be a tough series, but are not at all content with only snagging one game in the series.

“We’re outperforming what people thought we would do already ... but we know we have a lot to go,” Watson said. “I think we all know we can beat really good teams.”

Tech looks to bounce back in their upcoming road trip to Richmond to take on VCU on Tuesday, April 22, at 6:30 p.m. That game will be on ESPN+.