By R.L. Bynum

UNC sophomore catcher Luke Stevenson ended the Tar Heels’ five-game homerless drought as the unbeaten No. 6 Tar Heels rolled to an 11–6 victory Sunday before 3,940 fans at Boshamer Stadium.

The Tar Heels banged out 13 hits, led by first baseman Hunter Stokely, who was 4 for 5 with three RBI, and an outstanding relief outing from Folger Boaz (winner, 1–0), who finished the game with 3.1 innings of two-hit shutout ball with a walk and a strikeout.

Eight of 10 UNC hitters reached base.

Carolina (6–0) goes for a sweep of the three-city series at 5 p.m. Monday at East Carolina (ESPN+).

After hitting warning-track fly balls twice in the first five games, Stevenson finally broke through with UNC’s first homer of the season, powering a breaking ball 354 feet over the left-field wall for a three-run shot to left field.  That ended a five-game homerless streak, the longest since April 6–13, 2018.

ECU’s starter, freshman left-hander Sean Jenkins, lasted 3.1 innings, giving up four hits, three runs, two walks and striking out two.

Against graduate UNC right-hander Jake Knapp (3 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts), in his first start of the season, ECU scored two in the third on Michael Kalinich’s RBI double to left and Kevin Bowman’s two-out single to left. Kyle Percival relieved Knapp to start the fourth and gave up a two-run homer to left field to Walker Barron.

Jack Herring’s one-out sacrifice fly in the fifth gave ECU a 5–3 lead.

UNC tied it in the bottom of the fifth with two runs, highlighted by Stokely’s RBI single to left. ECU regained the lead with Alex Bouche’s solo homer in the sixth before UNC took the lead for good with two sixth-inning runs on a Tyson Bass RBI double and a Stokely RBI single.

The Tar Heels turned it into a blowout with four hits and four runs in the eighth inning, getting an RBI single from Stokely, a Gavin Gallaher sacrifice fly and a two-run triple to right field from Kane Kepley.

NOTES — Senior right-hander Aidan Haugh (0–0, 3.00 ERA) will start the series finale for Carolina. … UNC leads the all-time series with ECU 62–36. … UNC coach Scott Forbes is 7–6 against ECY, while Pirates coach Cliff Godwin is 9–12 against the Tar Heels.

---

No. 6 UNC 11, ECU 6

---

UNC schedule

Date(s)	Day/ month	Times	Opponent (current rank)
	February
13–15	Fri.-Sat.	4, noon, 1	vs. Indiana
17	Tuesday	4 p.m.	vs. Richmond
18	Wednesday	4 p.m.	vs. Longwood
20–22	Fri.-Sun.	4 (Greenville; ESPN+), 2 (DBAP), 2 (CH)	vs. East Carolina
24	Tuesday	4 p.m.	vs. N.C. A&T
25	Wednesday	4 p.m.	vs. VCU
27–28	Fri., Sat.	4 p.m., 2 p.m.	vs. Le Moyne
	March
1	Sunday	1 p.m.	vs. Le Moyne
3	Tuesday	4 p.m.	vs. Elon
6–8	Fri.-Sun.	4, 2, 1	vs. Virginia
10	Tuesday	4 p.m.	vs. Bucknell
13–15	Fri.-Sun.	9, 5, 4	at California
18	Wednesday	4 p.m.	vs. UNCG
20–22	Fri.-Sun.	8, 2, 1 Friday on ACCN	vs. No. 8 Louisville
24	Tuesday	6:30	vs. South Carolina in Charlotte
27–29	Fri.-Sun.	6:30, 3, 1	at Notre Dame
31	Tuesday	8 p.m., ACCN	vs. Campbell
	April
2–4	Thur.-Sat.	6, 6, 2	vs. Boston College
7	Tuesday	7 p.m., ACCN	vs. Charlotte
10–12	Fri.-Sun.	6, 2, 12:30 (Sunday on ACCN)	at No. 19 Clemson
14	Tuesday	6 p.m.	vs. UNCW
17–19	Fri-Sun.	6, noon, 1 (Saturday, Sunday on ACCN)	vs. No. 5 Georgia Tech
21	Tuesday	6 p.m.	vs. High Point
23–25	Thu.-Sat.	7, 6, 3 (Thursday on ACCN)	at Duke
28	Tuesday	7 p.m., ACCN	vs. No. 6 Coastal Carolina
29	Wednesday	6 p.m.	vs. Queens
	May
3	Sunday	2 p.m., ACCN (non-conference game)	vs. Duke
6	Wednesday	6 p.m.	vs. Winthrop
8–10	Fri.-Sun.	6, noon, 1	vs. Pittsburgh
12	Tuesday	6 p.m.	at UNCW
14–16	Thurs.-Sat.	7, 6, 1 (Thursday on ACCN)	at No. 17 N.C. State
19–24	Tues.-Sun.	ACC tournament (ACCN, ESPN2 for final)	Charlotte
29–31	Fri.-Sun.	NCAA Regionals	Campus sites
	June
5–7	Fri.-Sun.	NCAA Super Regionals	Campus sites
12–22	Fri.-Mon	College World Series	Omaha, Neb.

Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics