By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — No. 16 North Carolina is finding many ways to win during its nine-game win streak, and the Tar Heels did it in the final inning for the second time this week.
One of the many players the Tar Heels snagged in the transfer portal, versatile graduate right fielder Anthony Donofrio, came through with the game-ending hit in the 10th inning.
Donofrio sent his third hit screaming down the right-field line with one out to drive in the winning run in UNC’s 6–5 win Sunday for a sweep of their ACC-opening three-game series over Pittsburgh.
Donofrio embraces the process-oriented approach that hitting coach Jesse Wierzbicki preaches, along with staying calm at the plate, which Coach Scott Forbes urges of his players. It paid off in a clutch situation.
“I just went out there, and I got a good pitch to hit and then put a good swing on it,” said Donofrio (celebrating in top photo), a Quinnipiac transfer, who hit a 3–2 fastball. That scored left fielder Casey Cook from first after he was hit by a pitch to start the inning, even though Cook’s quad was bothering him.
“I haven’t been able to leave the yard entirely this year, but staying linear, keeping hard liners, and luckily that one fell,” said Donofrio, who hit an inside-the-park home run against Princeton.
UNC (14–2, 3–0 ACC), which scored four ninth-inning runs to win 7–3 at Campbell on Tuesday, has so much talent that co-captain Jackson Van De Brake hasn’t started since Feb. 24. But Forbes said that the senior co-captain has stayed positive, setting a good example for the rest of the team.
“The thing that’s impressed me so much so far about the team is how unified they are,” Forbes said. “When you’ve got an All-ACC guy sitting over there in Jackson Van De Brake, pulling as hard as he can and celebrating and being as happy as anybody else — and obviously he wants to be in the lineup. That’s the mark of a special team.”
Undoubtedly, the Tar Heels were winners in the transfer portal with the consistent play of second baseman Alex Madera from Arcadia and first baseman Parks Harber from Georgia, and the depth of that transfer class was on display Sunday.
“That’s a big part of the world we’re in now,” Forbes said. “We’ve got to always try to get those best transfers that we can moving forward.”
Shea Sprague, a left-handed Elon junior transfer, pitched his best game of the season in his second start, and junior right-hander Aiden Haugh (winner, 1–0), a transfer from Fayetteville Tech, pitched a scoreless 10th.
Carolina shut down Sprague in the fall because he threw so many innings last spring and summer, but he’s at full strength now. After fully preparing for a start for the first time this season, the two-time All-CAA pick gave up four hits, two runs, two walks and struck out two in six innings and has solidified his role as a weekend starter.
“When we came back for preseason it was a little bit rough, but just knocking the rust off and getting back to it,” Sprague said. “I think the fastball was really good. I was working it to both sides of the plate. It’s big if you can show a changeup, keep them off-balance.”
UNC scored a second-inning run after Donofrio beat out an infield single to third with one out and took second on Alberto Osuna’s walk. He went to third on a passed ball and scored when Pitt catcher Jayden Melendez’s throw to second went into center field.
Pitt (8–4, 0–3) tied it in the third when third baseman Ryan Zuckerman led off with a walk and scored on center fielder Dom Popa’s double down the right-field line.
Carolina retook the lead in the third inning. Shortstop Colby Wilkerson led off with a single to right field, center fielder Vance Honeycutt doubled off the fence in right-center, and Wilkerson scored on Cook’s groundout.
UNC didn’t get much off Pitt starting sophomore left-hander Ryan Reed, who scattered five hits and gave up one unearned run, one walk and struck out three in five innings. It was a different story for the Panthers’ relievers.
“I thought all their starters threw well against us,” Forbes said. “I thought we were a little bit antsy at the plate like we were hitting defensively. We kind of made that adjustment once they went to the bullpen.”
Senior right-hander Erubiel Candelario lasted three batters, giving up a walk, a Donofrio double to center field and an Osuna RBI double to center. Freshman UNC catcher Luke Stevenson hit an RBI single off senior left-hander Ryan Partridge to make it 5–1.
Senior right-hander Connor Bovair relieved Sprague after he gave up a walk and a single to lead off the seventh. Bovair retired three straight batters to end the inning, but a run scored on a groundout.
The wind was howling to left field all day, and nobody took advantage of it until the eighth inning. Nine-hole Pitt shortstop Jake Kendro lofted a drive over the fence in left field for a leadoff home run, the only hit off Bovair in one inning.
Senior right-handed closer Matt Poston came on after Bovair issued a walk after the homer. Pitt got back-to-back one-out singles to plate another run, then second baseman Tyler Bischke hit a two-out single up the middle on a 3–2 pitch to tie it at 5.
Poston (3 hits, 1 run, 1 strikeout) pitched two innings before giving way to Haugh.
NOTES — Carolina plays a two-game series with Rutgers, with games at 6 p.m. Tuesday and 4 p.m. Wednesday (both streamed on ESPN3), before playing a weekend ACC series at Miami starting Friday. The Scarlet Knights (10–4) lost two of three this weekend at High Point, dropping a 6–2 game on Sunday. … UNC and Rutgers have both beaten Wagner. The Scarlet Knights won 7–2 at home on March 5, and the Tar Heels swept a three-game season-opening home series by a combined score of 46–14. … The Tar Heels’ nine game winning streak is its longest since winning nine in a row during the 2018 season. … Carolina improved to 4–1 in one-run games … Honeycutt extended his on-base streak to 51 games. … UNC is 13–0 at home this season and has won 17 straight in Boshamer Stadium. … UNC’s 10th win in a row over Pittsburgh gave the Tar Heels their third consecutive series sweep of the Panthers.
No. 16 UNC 6, Pitt 5, 10 innings
| Date | Day/ month | Time/ score | Opponent/event (current ranks) | TV/ record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February | ||||
| 16 | Friday | W, 10–3 | vs. Wagner | 1–0 |
| 17 | Saturday | W, 16–5 | vs. Wagner | 2–0 |
| 18 | Sunday | W, 20–6 | vs. Wagner | 3–0 |
| 20 | Tuesday | W, 8–7 | vs. Elon | 4–0 |
| 23 | Friday | W, 2–1 | vs. No. 5 East Carolina | 5–0 |
| 24 | Saturday | L, 7–4 | vs. No. 5 East Carolina in Fayetteville | 5–1 |
| 25 | Sunday | L, 10–9 | at No. 5 East Carolina | 5–2 |
| 27 | Tuesday | W, 8–2 | vs. VCU | 6–2 |
| 28 | Wednesday | W, 12–3 | vs. Longwood | 7–2 |
| March | ||||
| 1 | Friday | W, 12–2 | vs. Princeton | 8–2 |
| 2 | Saturday | W, 11–2 | vs. Princeton | 9–2 |
| 3 | Sunday | W, 13–6 | vs. Princeton | 10–2 |
| 5 | Tuesday | W, 7–3 | at Campbell | 11–2 |
| 8 | Friday | W, 2–1 | vs. Pittsburgh | 12–2, 1–0 ACC |
| 9 | Saturday | W, 7–3 | vs. Pittsburgh | 13–2, 2–0 ACC |
| 10 | Sunday | W, 6–5, 10 innings | vs. Pittsburgh | 14–2, 3–0 ACC |
| 12 | Tuesday | W, 13–7 | vs. Rutgers | 15–2 |
| 13 | Wednesday | W, 9–8 | vs. Rutgers | 16–2 |
| 15 | Friday | L, 14–1 | at Miami | 16–3, 3–1 ACC |
| 16 | Saturday | L, 2–1 | at Miami | 16–4, 3–2 ACC |
| 17 | Sunday | W, 18–6 | at Miami | 17–4, 4–2 ACC |
| 19 | Tuesday | W, 11–0, 7 innings | vs. UNCW | 18–4 |
| 22 | Friday | W, 5–4 | vs. Georgia Tech | 19–4, 5–2 ACC |
| 23 | Saturday | W, 11–5 | vs. Georgia Tech | 20–4, 6–2 ACC |
| 24 | Sunday | W, 9–2 | vs. Georgia Tech | 21–4, 7–2 ACC |
| 26 | Tuesday | W, 10–8 | vs. N.C. A&T | 22–4 |
| 29 | Friday | W, 6–5 | at No. 13 Wake Forest | 23–4, 8–2 ACC |
| 30 | Saturday | W, 10–6 | at No. 13 Wake Forest | 24–4, 9–2 ACC |
| 31 | Sunday | W, 14–10 | at No. 13 Wake Forest | 25–4, 10–2 ACC |
| April | ||||
| 4 | Thursday | L, 14–11 | at No. 11 Virginia | 25–5, 10–3 ACC |
| 5 | Friday | L, 7–2 | at No. 11 Virginia | 25–6, 10–4 ACC |
| 6 | Saturday | W, 12–7 | at No. 11 Virginia | 26–6, 11–4 ACC |
| 9 | Tuesday | L, 2–1 | vs. No. 15 South Carolina in Charlotte | 26–7 |
| 12 | Friday | W, 13–0, 6½ innings | vs. Notre Dame | 27–7, 12–4 ACC |
| 13 | Saturday | W, 7–2 | vs. Notre Dame | 28–7, 13–4 ACC |
| 14 | Sunday | W, 10–3 | vs. Notre Dame | 29–7, 14–4 ACC |
| 16 | Tuesday | L, 5–4 | vs. Coastal Carolina | 29–8 |
| 18 | Thursday | L, 9–8 | at No. 20 N.C. State | 29–9, 14–5 ACC |
| 19 | Friday | L, 5–4 | at No. 20 N.C. State | 29–10, 14–6 ACC |
| 20 | Saturday | W, 14–3 | at No. 20 N.C. State | 30–10, 15–6 ACC |
| 23 | Tuesday | W, 5–2 | vs. Gardner-Webb | 31–10 |
| 26 | Friday | W, 8–1 | vs. Virginia Tech | 32–10, 16–6 ACC |
| 27 | Saturday | W, 6–3 | vs. Virginia Tech | 33–10, 17–6 ACC |
| 28 | Sunday | L, 4–3 | vs. Virginia Tech | 33–11, 17–7 ACC |
| 30 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | vs. Charlotte | ACCN |
| May | ||||
| 1 | Wednesday | 6 p.m. | vs. William & Mary | ESPN3 |
| 7 | Tuesday | 6 p.m. | vs. Campbell | ESPN3 |
| 10 | Friday | 6 p.m. | vs. Louisville | ESPN3 |
| 11 | Saturday | 2 p.m. | vs. Louisville | ESPN3 |
| 12 | Sunday | 1 p.m. | vs. Louisville | ACCN |
| 14 | Tuesday | 6 p.m. | at UNCW | FloSports |
| 16 | Thursday | 6 p.m. | at No. 10 Duke | ACCN |
| 17 | Friday | 6 p.m. | at No. 10 Duke | ESPN3 |
| 18 | Saturday | 1 p.m. | at No. 10 Duke | ESPN3 |
| 21–26 | Tuesday- Sunday | TBA | ACC tournament in Charlotte | ACCN |
| 31 | Friday | TBA | NCAA Regional | TBA |
| June | ||||
| 1–3 | Saturday- Monday | TBA | NCAA Regional | TBA |
| 7–10 | Friday- Monday | TBA | NCAA Super Regional | TBA |
| 14–24 | Friday- Monday | TBA | College World Series in Omaha, Neb. | TBA |
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
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