UNC baseball stays hot, hammers Clemson to open pool play in 2022 ACC Tournament

Adam Smith, Times-News
·2 min read

CHARLOTTE — North Carolina baseball didn’t cool off Tuesday night.

The Tar Heels stayed hot and hammered Clemson 9-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament opener for both teams at Truist Field, behind a balanced hitting attack and starter Max Carlson’s stellar pitching.

Danny Serretti and Vance Honeycutt drove in two runs apiece and Angel Zarate supplied four hits, as North Carolina picked up its 12th victory across the last 14 games, extending its winning streak that ended the regular season.

Eighth-seeded North Carolina (35-19) meets No. 1 seed Virginia Tech next, a Friday night matchup to close the pool play portion of the tournament. The Tar Heels can advance to Saturday’s semifinal round and further strengthen their NCAA Tournament credentials by defeating the Hokies, who won two of three games against UNC in early April.

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Clemson (35-22) needed a victory on Tuesday night to help steady its shaky NCAA footing. But Carlson kept the Tigers quiet, scattering six hits and striking out four in his six innings of work.

Carlson (2-2) struck out Clemson slugger Max Wagner, the newly crowned ACC Player of the Year, three straight times — the Tar Heels’ Max getting the better of the Tigers’ Max — before exiting with an 8-1 lead. North Carolina relievers Gage Gillian and Davis Palermo took care of the final three innings.

Angel Zarate scores and is greeted by North Carolina teammates Hunter Stokely, left, and Danny Serretti, right, during the Tar Heels’ defeat of Clemson in the ACC baseball tournament on Tuesday night in Charlotte.
Angel Zarate scores and is greeted by North Carolina teammates Hunter Stokely, left, and Danny Serretti, right, during the Tar Heels’ defeat of Clemson in the ACC baseball tournament on Tuesday night in Charlotte.

The Tar Heels went ahead 1-0 after three batters in the bottom of the first inning. Serretti dumped a run-scoring single into left field, driving in Zarate, who ripped a lead-off double on the first pitch of the night from Clemson starter Mack Anglin (6-6).

In the bottom of the second, Clemson left fielder Tyler Corbitt misjudged Mac Horvath’s deep fly to the warning track with two outs, and couldn’t make the catch to get the Tigers out of the inning. That error allowed North Carolina to score twice and lead 3-1.

Mikey Madej homered in the third inning, increasing UNC’s lead to 4-1. Honeycutt’s two-run single in the fourth moved the Tar Heels ahead 7-1. Hunter Stokely added two hits at the bottom of the lineup for North Carolina, which finished with 11 hits on the night.

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Adam Smith is a sports reporter for the Burlington Times-News and USA TODAY Network. You can reach him by email at asmith@thetimesnews.com or @adam_smithTN on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Times-News: UNC baseball stays hots, hammers Clemson to open 2022 ACC Tournament