Miami squeezes out win in 9th; Stokely hits early 3-run HR but UNC can’t beat best closer in country

By R.L. Bynum

CHAPEL HILL — Against Miami, the goal is always to keep the Hurricanes from giving the ball to fireballing right-handed closer Andrew Walters with the game on the line.

No. 13 Carolina couldn’t avoid that in Thursday night’s series opener, and the inevitable frustration followed in a 5–4 Miami victory.

The Tar Heels (23–11, 8–6 ACC) had a rough time in the final two innings against Walters’ fastballs, which consistently came in around 95 mph. The Canes scratched out a ninth-inning run on a safety-squeeze bunt, and that was enough to give Miami (21–12, 9–7) its first road ACC win of the season.

“There aren’t many guys that have that type of stuff with that type of command,” said UNC coach Scott Forbes, who said Walters is probably the best pitcher in the country.

Baltimore drafted the 6–4, 220-pound Walters, who D1 Baseball named in the preseason and earlier this month as the No. 1 reliever in the country, in the 18th round of last summer’s draft. Instead of signing, he returned to Miami to play with his brother Brian, who also is a pitcher.

Walters (3–0 with three saves) struck out three in two scoreless innings and has 34 strikeouts against one walk in 19⅓ innings.

Forbes said that Walters’ rising fastball reminded him of former Louisville pitcher Zack Burdi and former Tar Heel Andrew Carignan in that, “you know it’s coming and it’s hard to get a barrel on it.”

Carolina first baseman Hunter Stokely (top photo) had a double and a three-run homer earlier in the game but could only muster a pop-out in his only at-bat against Walters.

“We don’t really see it a lot,” Stokely said of fastballs in the mid-90s. “You’ve got to be on top of the fastball and just react to it.”

The only Tar Heel to make solid contact on Walters was Max Riemer, who flew out to deep center field to end the game.

It turned into a battle of the bullpens that Miami won by shutting out the Tar Heels in the final six innings. The Cames paired Blake Cyr’s sixth-inning homer to right field off reliever Matthew Matthijs with the big ninth-inning bunt.

“I thought our relievers were sensational,” Forbes said. “It was two great teams playing, and they got the win today. So that was the only negative part for me.”

Carolina played without slugger Johnny Castagnozzi for a second consecutive game. He’s in COVID-19 protocols, but Forbes expects Castagnozzi to play by Saturday and possibly by Friday. Hot-hitting outfielder Patrick Alvarez came out of the game in the fifth inning with what Forbes fears could be a broken left hamate bone. UNC will find out for sure Friday.

Miami redshirt freshman right fielder Lorenzo Carrier, hitting ninth and in only his 12th plate appearance of the season, led off the third inning by launching a home run over the left-field screen. It traveled 405 feet, landing in the back of the parking lot.

The Canes added a run on Cyr’s two-out RBI double, but UNC got out of the inning when Yohandy Morales got thrown out at the plate. Right fielder Casey Cook threw to second baseman Jackson Van De Brake, whose relay throw to catcher Tomas Frick came quickly enough for Frick to tag out Morales in a close play.

Stokely’s first home run in 13 games, a blast to left field, came after Van De Brake hit an opposite-field RBI down the right-field line in the third inning. It was Stokely’s fifth homer of the season after combining for four in his first two seasons.

“Probably the best one I’ve hit all year,” Stokely said of the home run off Miami starter Gage Ziehl. “He started me on the change-up. I took a fastball, then he threw me a slider away, and I just went with it that way.”

Miami got a run back on DH Ian Farrow’s RBI double down the left-field line. UNC starter Max Carlson, who gave up eight hits and three runs with six strikeouts in five innings, rebounded to strike out the next two batters, including Carrier, and got out of the inning without further damage.

“We need to be better, obviously,” Forbes said of Carlson. “If your Friday guy gives up one run, we win the game; I think our bullpen is gonna lock it down pretty good. That’s the next step one of our starters has got to make. ‘You know what, I’m staying in this game, I’m throwing seven or eight innings and I’m gonna give it to the guy for one inning.’ “

Cyr lofted Matthijs’ second pitch over the right-field fence to lead off the sixth inning to tie it, the first earned run off him since March 14.

UNC reliever Kevin Eaise (loser, 2–2) battled around a leadoff single and a walk with two strikeouts in the eighth inning. Then, he fanned Farrow with two runners in scoring position and two outs.

Miami got the game-winning run off Eaise in the ninth when Dario Gomez laid down a perfect bunt in front of the plate on a safety squeeze to score Jacoby Long on an RBI single. Eaise then induced an inning-ending double play from Morales to avert any more damage.

NOTES — Weather permitting, Game 2 of the series is at 7 p.m. Friday (ESPN2), with a pair of junior right-handers, UNC’s Connor Bovair (4–1, 3.25 ERA) and Miami’s Alejandro Rosario (2–3, 8.51 ERA) starting. Starters for the scheduled noon series finale Saturday (ESPN3) haven’t been named. … Should Friday’s game get rained out, there wouldn’t be a Saturday doubleheader because of Miami’s travel schedule and it would become a two-game series. ACC rules don’t allow a series to extend to a fourth day. … The television announcers for Thursday’s game, as they will for Friday’s game, called the game remotely. … UNC hasn’t had a weekend series in which all three games were played at the originally scheduled time since the Stony Brook series the first week in March. …  UNC’s Eric Grintz has been out since getting hit by a fastball and suffering a broken rib against Notre Dame but is available to hit. … In D1 Baseball’s midseason Top 150 prospects list, Horvath moved up 10 spots to No. 63. … The UNC band made its annual appearance at The Bosh on Thursday, taking up an entire section down the right-field line. … Colby Wilkerson batted seventh after hitting in the nine hole every previous game, and Antonio Osuna, battling a hitting slump, batted eighth, with Alvarez ninth. … … Thursday’s win was the Canes’ first in an ACC road game after dropping its first eight. … Miami leads the all-time series 45–36–1 but UNC leads in games played in Chapel Hill 20–15 and has won the last three series at The Bosh.

Miami 5, No. 13 UNC 4


Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics Communications

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