North Carolina sweeps doubleheader to take pivotal weekend series against Virginia Tech

By Raza Umerani

Staff Writer

April 30, 2023

BLACKSBURG - With the regular season winding down and the ACC Coastal standings tighter than ever, both Virginia Tech and North Carolina desperately needed a series win to boost their postseason resumés. Despite dropping the opener on Friday, UNC accomplished that goal by sweeping the Saturday doubleheader to steal the series on the road. 

The Tar Heels (28-16, 11-11 ACC) notched 12-8 and 13-7 wins over the Hokies (25-16, 11-12) behind their high-powered offense taking advantage of some lackluster pitching.

“We gave up 25 runs. You have no chance to win any baseball games if you’re giving up that many runs,” Tech head coach John Szefc said after the games. “You can’t pitch and play defense the way we did and expect to be in any kind of baseball game.”

Tech gave up 25 hits across the two games while making two errors, allowing a combined four unearned runs.

The Hokies got off to a hot start in the day game behind solid offensive execution and some great innings from starting pitcher Drue Hackenberg. RBI singles from designated hitter Carson DeMartini and catcher Brody Donay alongside a sacrifice bunt from second baseman Christian Martin put the home team up 3-0 after the first inning. All the while, Hackenberg retired six of the first eight batters he faced.

That’s when things started to go south for VT. In the top of the third, an error and two walks set up a grand slam for North Carolina’s star third baseman Mac Horvath, who victimized the Hokies all day long. In the top of the fourth, he faced Hackenberg again with two runners on and two outs and launched another towering blast to left field to bust the game open. 

After another base hit knocked Hackenberg out of the game, neither Matthew Siverling nor Tyler Dean could record the final out of the inning, as they faced a combined seven batters and gave up four hits, three walks and four more runs. Finally, Szefc turned to Peter Sakellaris, who struck out Horvath to mercifully end the frame. The nightmarish inning saw 15 UNC batters come to the plate as the Tar Heels scored 8 runs – all with two outs – to take a 12-3 lead.

Sakellaris ended up being the Hokies’ silver lining in game one, as he went the rest of the way, tossing 5.1 scoreless innings while yielding just four hits, two walks and punching out two Carolina batters.

“I was trying to stay relaxed out there,” Sakellaris said after the game. “I knew we got off to a bad start and I had to eat some innings and save our bullpen for the second game.”

With the second game of the doubleheader shaping up to be a bullpen game, the value of Sakellaris’ performance could not have been overstated.

“He did a really good job of saving guys for the second game,” Szefc said. “I give him a lot of credit. He was our best guy by far today, it wasn’t even close.”

Virginia Tech did not go down without a fight, as a three-run fifth cut the lead to six and an inspiring two-out ninth inning rally made it 12-8 and brought the tying run to the plate. But Gehrig Ebel struck out to strand the bases loaded and send the series to a rubber match in the nightcap.

Game two got off to a similar start as the Hokies struck first with a solo home run from Carson DeMartini, who had some choice words for UNC’s catcher Tomas Frick and head coach Scott Forbes in the dugout. Forbes took great exception to DeMartini’s comments and ragefully charged towards the Hokies dugout, leading to a clearing of the benches and plenty of tempers flaring. No one was tossed, but both teams were given warnings.

“It’s just the heat of the moment,” Szefc said. “DeMartini got into it with the catcher…stuff happens.”

Meanwhile, Tech’s starter Jonah Hurney settled in nicely, allowing just one run in his 2 ⅓  innings pitched on a sac fly from Horvath. And in the top of the third, the Hokies jumped back on top with another solo shot – this one off the bat of left fielder Chris Cannizzaro. 

That was the last lead Tech would have for the game as the Tar Heels scored in every inning for the rest of the way. A two-run homer for Frick and a two-run single for first baseman Hunter Stokely made it 5-2 before Garrett Michel got one back on yet another solo shot in the bottom of the fifth. 

“It felt good,” Michel said about the homer. “I got the pitch in the zone I needed. I tried to do damage with it, and I did.”

The top of the sixth featured a sequence that proved to be the backbreaker for Virginia Tech. After Brody Donay dropped a pop up behind home plate off the bat of center fielder Vance Honeycutt that would have ended the inning, Honeycutt made the most of his second chance by knocking a single on the very next pitch. That put two runners on for Horvath, who once again tattooed one down over the left field fence to break the game open 8-3. 

Horvath ended the day with three homers and 11 RBIs across the two games. He tallied a whopping 19 RBIs this week across all games for the Tar Heels.

“He’s about as good a player as I’ve seen,” Szefc said. “He killed us. Absolutely destroyed us.”

Once again, the Hokies never quit down the stretch. After falling behind 9-3 on an RBI double for UNC right fielder Casey Cook, DeMartini launched his second home run of the night to center field – a two-run shot to make it a four run ballgame. An RBI single from Frick in the top of the eighth bumped the lead back up to five, but another late rally saw Tech bring the tying run to the plate via timely walks and smart baserunning. After bringing home two runs to make it 10-7, back-to-back batters struck out with two men on base to end the inning. 

In the top of the ninth, the Tar Heels plated three more runs for good measure to secure a 13-7 victory, a doubleheader sweep and the weekend series in Blacksburg. 

“It’s hard to come back when you can’t stop them from scoring,” Szefc said. “I give our guys a lot of credit for coming back but if you can’t keep them off the board, it’s a demoralizing feeling. … It’s like the cat that’s chasing the ball of yarn across the living room but the yarn keeps getting further away from it.”

The win in the latter game of the double header also allowed UNC to leapfrog the Hokies by half a game in the ACC Coastal standings with six conference games left to play. 

“Our whole season is pretty much on the line right now,” Sakellaris said. “We’re one game under. 500 in the ACC. If you go .500 in the ACC there’s a 90% chance to make the postseason, and if you’re under .500 in the ACC there’s a 20% chance to make the postseason. So the next six [conference] games are pretty much make or break for us.”

The Hokies return to action with a home-and-home midweek series against Marshall on Tuesday and Wednesday.