How did last year’s UNC-ECU baseball series pan out?
Despite no college baseball team from North Carolina winning the College World Series since 1955, the Tar Heel State has a plethora of talented programs who are regulars in the NCAA Tournament.
NC State came close to winning it in 2021, but lost in the semifinals.
The North Carolina Tar Heels might be its home state’s greatest program to never win a CWS title, despite reaching the CWS 11 times and the finals twice.
Another one of North Carolina’s top collegiate programs is East Carolina University, which has won the AAC (American Athletic Conference) regular-season title the past three years. ECU has reached the NCAA Tournament 33 times and won a regional on seven occasions, but has never reached the CWS.
If you haven’t guessed it already, the Diamond Heels and Pirates are facing off this weekend for a 3-game series. Game One will be Friday, Feb. 23 at 5 p.m. in Chapel Hill, Game Two will be Saturday in Fayetteville, NC and Game Three will be Sunday in Greenville.
These two baseball rivals have played every year since 2016, with the lone exception being the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign. Last year provided three exciting matchups, with each game being decided by one run.
Ahead of Friday’s highly-anticipated game, let’s quickly revisit last year’s matchups.
Game 1: Friday, Feb. 24, 2023 in Greenville – ECU 6, UNC 5
Former Diamond Heel Max Carlson, now a member of the Boston Red Sox organization, pitched seven strong innings and got his team out to a 3-0 lead in game one of last year’s UNC-ECU series.
No lead is ever safe in baseball, especially in front of such a rowdy crowd like ECU’s at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
Such was the case in this matchup, with the host Pirates coming back for a 6-5 win. North Carolina used four pitchers in the eighth inning, an early indication of a bullpen unit that would struggle throughout the year.
Game 2: Sunday, Feb. 26 in Chapel Hill – ECU 6, UNC 5
Game 2 of the 2023 UNC-ECU series was a nearly-identical replica of Game 1, with the Tar Heel bullpen giving away a 3-run lead.
Mac Horvath, picked by the Baltimore Orioles in the second round of the 2023 MLB Draft, hit his fourth home run of the season in this game. North Carolina hit three home runs in this game overall – how many times have you see a team lose when doing so?
ECU second baseman Jacob Starling drove in the eventual, game-winning runs with his 2-run double in the seventh inning.
Game 3: Wednesday, May 3, 2023 in Greenvile – UNC 2, ECU 1
I know it’s a cliché, but on how many occasions have you heard someone say “Third time’s the charm?”
This popular cliché went into effect during Game 3 of last year’s UNC-ECU series, with the Diamond Heels finally beating the Pirates in a 2-1 pitchers’ duel on May 3, 2023.
Vance Honeycutt and Jackson Van De Brake scored North Carolina’s lone runs, while bullpen star Dalton Pence earned the win with two relief innings.
