By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — The power that has been hard to come by in ACC play for No. 16 North Carolina ignited an impressive blowout of Wake Forest.
Junior center fielder Kane Kepley and sophomore third baseman Gavin Gallaher both hit home runs as the Tar Heels rolled to an 11–1 seven-inning run-rule victory in the opener of a three-game series with the Deacons at Boshamer Stadium on Friday night.
“I think this is what everybody’s been waiting for,” said Gallaher, who hit two home runs in Tuesday’s 12–10 win at Elon.
“We played, in my opinion, a complete game, top to bottom,” said Gallaher, who was 3 for 3 with three RBI. “Pitching was unbelievable, and throughout the entire game, we were executing what we wanted to do. I think that’s just what we’re capable of, right there. [If] we can go and do that, we can beat any team in the country.”
It was only UNC’s third ACC game with multiple home runs. Coming into the series, the Tar Heels (26–8, 9–7 ACC) had hit 25 home runs in 18 nonconference games but only 14 in 15 league contests.
“I know the league’s tough. I look at the pitching that we faced,” UNC coach Scott Forbes said of the home runs not coming as often in league play.
With wins in nine of its last 11 games, UNC seems to be hitting its stride at the right time, with eight batters in the order getting hits, including multiple hits by five Tar Heels.
After only having four innings with at least four runs in conference games before this series, they poured on four runs each in the second and fourth innings.
“You have some adversity early, some tough losses, go through some stretches,” Forbes said. “When you get in that second half of the season, it can really help you if you have tough players, and I think we have tough players.”
Wake Forest (24–11, 9–7) only gave up seven runs in taking two of three games last weekend at No. 9 Florida State, but UNC topped that by the third inning. The Deacons were held to one run after they combined to score 27 in their last two games at Florida State.
“That’s the ACC,” Forbes said. “It’s a hard league. You literally have to move on quickly and not look behind you at what you did, good or bad. I think every team can beat you. You have to play well. You have to finish games.”
It was UNC’s fourth run-rule victory of the season. They did it to Stanford (11–1 on March 8), at Boston College (10–0 on March 23) and Gardner-Webb (11–1 on April 1) after doing it five times all of last season.
Senior right-hander Jake Knapp (winner, 7–0; 5⅔ innings, 4 hits, 1 run, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts) loaded the bases on three walks with one out in the first inning. He cruised through the following four innings after escaping that jam with a strikeout and a flyout.
Knapp had some words with home-plate umpire Travis Carlson after the first inning, clearly feeling he was getting squeezed on some ball/strike calls.
“In the moment, I definitely thought I made some good pitches,” Knapp said, “but I shouldn’t have said anything to the umpire. I’ll go back and look; there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Knapp threw 116 pitches, the fourth time in the last five starts that he’s racked up a triple-digit total, but he’s comfortable with that workload.
He says he’s ready to do more of it since this is the last season he’s guaranteed to be able to pitch after missing last season with a torn UCL in his throwing arm.
“I worked really hard through rehab, and that’s kind of been the expectation the whole time, is once we get to conference play, leaving it all out there,” Knapp said. “I love it, and I’m grateful that they let me do it.”
Wake Forest starter Chris Levonas (loser, 2–1) needed only 13 pitches to retire UNC in order in the first inning. He had thrown 80 by the time he left with two outs in the fourth after giving up nine hits, seven runs and two walks.
Forbes said that UNC knew Levonas had a good curveball, so the strategy was to aggressively attack his fastball.
“The curve ball is real, and we told our guys, either take the curve ball when you get it, or fight it off with two strikes,” Forbes said. “Our plan was to try to be on time for that fastball.”
UNC collected four hits and sent nine men to the plate in the second inning, getting RBI singles from senior shortstop Alex Madera and senior second baseman Jackson Van De Brake, and a sacrifice bunt from junior left fielder Carter French to score a run.
The Tar Heels made it 5–0 in the third when Gallaher singled to left with one out and Madera doubled to right field. In an aggressive send around third from Forbes, Gallaher scored when Deacs catcher Jimmy Keenan couldn’t handle the throw from right fielder Matt Scannell.
“I had my head down, running hard the whole way,” Gallaher said. “I figured [Forbes] was going to send me. I didn’t actually know that the ball never got to the corner. So, I thought it was just a line drive down the line that got to the corner. I thought I was going the whole time. So luckily, I just never slowed down.”
Kepley, who extended his on-base streak to 34, blasted a solo homer 390 feet to right-center field to lead off the fourth. Van De Brake followed with a single, and Levonas’ evening was done after senior first baseman Hunter Stokely’s RBI double.
Gallaher hit the first pitch from Deacons right-handed reliever Matt Bedford off the scoreboard (and would have otherwise travelled 401 feet) in left field for a two-run home run and a 9–0 lead.
Wake Forest broke through against Knapp in the sixth inning when first baseman Jack Winnay tripled to left-center field and scored on DH Luke Castello’s sacrifice fly. Graduate left-hander Tom Chmielewski relieved Knapp, got out of the inning with a strikeout, and added another strikeout while only giving up one hit in one inning.
Senior right-hander Cale Bolton relieved Chmielewski with two outs in the seventh inning after he gave up a single and hit a batter. Bolton got out of the inning by eliciting a groundout.
UNC elicited the 10-run rule in the seventh inning when they loaded the bases with two walks and a hit batsman and scored on a wild pitch by Wake Forest reliever Nate Whysong.
NOTE — In Game 2 of the series at 1 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2), UNC senior right-hander Aidan Haugh (3–2, 1.91 ERA) opposes Wake Forest junior right-hander Logan Lunceford 5–2, 3.72 ERA). In Sunday’s 1 p.m. series finale (ACC Network Extra), sophomore right-hander Jason DeCaro (4–3, 4.69 ERA) will start against sophomore right-hander Blake Morningstar (4–0, 2.45 ERA). … Carolina has won eight consecutive home series against Wake Forest dating back to 2001. … Carolina’s only other multi-homer games in ACC play were the four-homer games March 8 against Stanford and March 14 at Louisville. … UNC leads the all-time series 171–127–3, including 99–57–1 in Chapel Hill, and 36–13 since 2003. … Forbes is 6–2 against Wake Forest and Deacons coach Tom Walter is 9–22 against UNC.
No. 16 UNC 11, Wake Forest 1 (7)
| Date(s) | Day/ month | Time/ score | Opponent (current rank) | TV */ record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February | ||||
| 14–15 | Fri.-Sat. | W, 5–1; W, 8–3; W, 4–2 | vs. Texas Tech | 3–0 |
| 18 | Tuesday | W, 12–9 | vs. Kansas State | 4–0 |
| 22–24 | Sat.-Mon. | W, 2–0; W, 11–6; W, 6–4 | vs. East Carolina (DBAP, CH, G’ville) | 7–0 |
| 25 | Tuesday | W, 7–4 | vs. VCU | 8–0 |
| 26 | Wednesday | W, 13–4 | vs. N.C. A&T | 9–0 |
| 28 | Friday | W, 16–2 | vs. Stony Brook | 10–0 |
| March | ||||
| 1–2 | Sat.-Sun. | W, 6–1; W, 9–5 | vs. Stony Brook | 12–0 |
| 4 | Tuesday | W, 6–4 (11) | vs. Coastal Carolina | 13–0 |
| 7–9 | Fri.-Sun. | L, 13–9; W, 11–1 (7); L, 7–0 | vs. Stanford | 14–2, 1–2 ACC |
| 11 | Tuesday | W, 7–3 (10) | at UNCW | 15–2 |
| 14, 16 | Fri., Sun. | L, 8–7; W, 6–4; L, 5–0 | at No. 14 Louisville | 16–4, 2–4 |
| 19 | Wednesday | L, 5–1 | vs. UConn | 16–5 |
| 21–23 | Fri.-Sun. | W, 5–1; L, 3–2; W, 10–0 (7) | at Boston College | 18–6, 4–5 |
| 25 | Tuesday | W, 13–8 | vs. South Carolina in Charlotte | 19–7 |
| 28–30 | Fri.-Sun. | W, 2–0; W, 4–2; L, 4–2 | vs. Miami | 21–7, 6–6 |
| April | ||||
| 1 | Tuesday | W, 11–1 (7) | vs. Gardner-Webb | 22–7 |
| 3–5 | Thur.-Sat. | W, 4–3; L, 9–5; W, 8–7 (14) | vs. Duke | 24–8, 8–7 |
| 8 | Tuesday | W, 12–10 | at Elon | 25–8 |
| 11 | Friday | W, 11–1 (7) | vs. Wake Forest | 26–8, 9–7 |
| 12–13 | Sat., Sun | 1, 1 | vs. Wake Forest | ESPN2 (Sat.) |
| 15 | Tuesday | 6 p.m. | vs. Charlotte | |
| 18–20 | Fri.–Sun. | 7, 3, 1 | at No. 25 Virginia Tech | ACCN (Sunday) |
| 22 | Tuesday | 6 p.m. | vs. Presbyterian | |
| 25–27 | Fri.–Sun. | 6, 3, 1 | at Pittsburgh | |
| 29 | Tuesday | 6 p.m. | vs. George Mason | |
| 30 | Wednesday | 6 p.m. | vs. Queens | |
| May | ||||
| 6 | Tuesday | 6 p.m. | vs. Campbell | |
| 9–11 | Fri.–Sun | 6, noon, 1 | vs. N.C. State | |
| 13 | Tuesday | 6 p.m. | vs. UNCW | |
| 15–17 | Thu.–Sat. | 6, 6, 2 | at No. 9 Florida State | ACCN (Thursday) |
| ACC tournament | ||||
| 20–25 | Tue.–Sun. | Single-elimination event | Durham Bulls Athletic Park | |
| 30–31 | Fri.–Sat. | NCAA regionals | Campus sites | |
| June | ||||
| 1 | Sunday | NCAA regionals | Campus sites | |
| 6–8 | Fri.–Sun. | Super Regionals | Campus sites | |
| 18–30 | Wed.–Mon. | College World Series | Omaha, Neb. |
* Unless otherwise indicated, games only stream on ACC Network Extra.
Photos courtesy of UNC Athletics
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