Miami baseball wins huge weekend series at North Carolina

The Miami baseball team rallied from a heartbreaking loss earlier on Saturday to defeat North Carolina 4-3 and win the weekend series in Chapel Hill. Miami improved to 22-13 with the win and 10-8 in the ACC. North Carolina dropped to 24-12, 9-7 in the ACC with the loss. Miami and UNC are tied for second in the ACC Coastal.

The Miami baseball team rallied to win the opening game of the series. A squeeze bunt single by Dario Gomez on his third hit of the night put Miami in front 5-4 in the top of the ninth inning. All-American closer Andrew Walters pitched the last two innings with three strikeouts to improve to 3-0 this season.

Game two between Miami and North Carolina was a roller coaster than needed two days to complete. Miami took a 6-0 lead in the top of the sixth inning on Friday night. North Carolina rallied and led 7-6 after six innings. Miami scored a run in the top of the seventh to tie the game at seven.

The game was suspended by rain in the top of the eighth and did not resume until Saturday. Miami took an 8-7 lead in the top of the 10th on a Dominic Pitelli home run. North Carolina tied the game in the bottom of the 10th on a two-strike, two-out Casey Cook home run off of Walters. North Carolina won the game in the 11th.

Hunter Stokely finished game two with three hits, two runs scored and two RBIs won game two with a two-out solo home run. The teams had a quick turnaround with game three starting about 45 mins after game two ended. After North Carolina took a 1-0 lead, Miami scored three in the third to surge in front.

A Zach Levenson solo home run in the fifth was critically important to extend the lead to 4-1. North Carolina scored two runs in the sixth inning to cut the deficit to 4-3. North Carolina had two runners on and one out in the bottom of the eighth. Rafe Schlesinger induced a key double play to get Miami out of the inning.

Alejandro Torres pitched the ninth inning to earn his second save. Ben Chestnutt pitched 3.1 innings in relief to improve to 3-0. Miami will host Bethune-Cookman on Tuesday night and play at Florida Atlantic before playing their first ACC series at home in three weeks versus Georgia Tech next weekend.