Virginia Falls to North Carolina 10-2 in ACC Baseball Championship

Everything went right for the Cavaliers in what was essentially a meaningless game against the Yellow Jackets on Wednesday. The next day, the opposite was the case for UVA in a must-win game against UNC. After cruising to a 15-1 win over Georgia Tech behind a dazzling performance on the mound from Nick Parker and a offensive explosion from the UVA bats, Virginia delivered a dud against North Carolina, suffering a lopsided 10-2 loss to eliminate the Cavaliers from contention at the ACC Baseball Championship. 

The early innings of the game were a pitchers' duel between UNC's Jake Knapp and UVA's Connelly Early, with both teams scoring just one unearned run in the first three frames. The Tar Heels scored in the top of the first as Mac Horvath drew a walk and came around to score on an error by Virginia second baseman Henry Godbout. The Cavaliers answered in the third as Godbout singled, stole second, and then scored as a grounder from Ethan O'Donnell went under the glove of UNC second baseman Jackson Van De Brake. 

North Carolina responded with three runs in the top of the fourth as Early started to lose control, yielding a single and a walk to start the inning. Hunter Stokely hit an RBI single and then a double from Alberto Osuna scored another run. A sacrifice fly by Colby Wilkerson made it 4-1 in favor of the Tar Heels. 

As was the theme of the game for the Virginia offense, the Cavaliers had a chance to answer in the bottom of the fourth, but failed to capitalize. Kyle Teel drew a walk and Ethan Anderson singled to put two runners on with no outs, but UVA couldn't bring them in as Knapp and the UNC defense successfully protected their lead. 

A great defensive play prevented the Tar Heels from extending their lead in the top of the sixth as Alberto Osuna hit a ball off the top of the wall in left field, but Colin Tuft got the ball quickly back to the infield to Griff O'Ferrall, who fired a perfect throw home in plenty of time to beat the ambitious Patrick Alvarez, who launched himself to the plate, but Teel smoothly applied the tag and sent Alvarez flying past him for the final out. 

UVA rode that momentum in the bottom of the sixth as Ethan Anderson crushed a solo home run over the wall in right field to make it 4-2. 

North Carolina extended its lead and then some in the seventh as neither Evan Blanco nor Brian Edgington could solve the Tar Heel batters out of the bullpen. With the bases loaded and one out, Edgington gave up a two-run single to Tomas Frick. Alvarez then beat out an infield single to bring another run in to make it 7-2. 

Just as Knapp had been a step ahead of the Cavalier batters, UNC lefty reliever Dalton Pence retired the first nine batters he faced to keep Virginia at just two runs. The Tar Heels blew the game wide open in the top of the eighth as Jake Berry surrendered a single and then intentionally walked Mac Horvath before giving way to Jay Woolfolk, who walked Van De Brake on four pitches to load the bases. Tomas Frick came up clutch again, blasting a 3-2 pitch from Woolfolk off the top of the wall, missing a grand slam by just a foot, but still clearing the bases with a double. That extended the North Carolina lead to 10-2. 

Anthony Stephan and Henry Godbout hit a pair of two-out singles in the ninth, but Pence otherwise had no problem shutting the door on the Cavaliers to end the game. 

While both pitching and hitting were strengths for the Hoos on Wednesday, UVA wasn't solid in either area against North Carolina. The Virginia pitchers gave up eight walks and allowed the Tar heels to go 5 for 11 with runners in scoring position, posting four two-out RBIs. The UVA batters, meanwhile, went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and went 7 for 34 as a team in the game. 

The loss eliminates the Cavaliers from contention at the 2023 ACC Baseball Championship, as North Carolina wins Pool B and advances to Saturday's semifinals. 

Virginia (45-12) will now wait to learn its draw for the NCAA Baseball Tournament on Monday. UVA is still in good position to host an NCAA regional, but is right on the cusp of earning a top 8 national seed. The 16 regional sites will be announced on Sunday night and then the full 64-team field for the 2023 NCAA Baseball Championship will be unveiled on Monday, May 29th at noon on ESPN2. 

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