Rain washes out UNC game after only 2½ innings

By R.L. Bynum

CHAPEL HILL — With big areas of standing water in several areas of the Bryson Field outfield, No. 8 North Carolina’s scheduled Tuesday game with Presbyterian was cancelled after the teams played only 2½ innings.

The Blue Hose owned a 4–3 lead in the middle of the third inning when the infield tarp was unfurled at Boshamer Stadium ahead of the downpour that left the outfield unplayable. Without the required five innings, all the statistics are wiped out. The start time was moved up from 6 p.m. to 3 p.m. in hopes of getting the game in.

The Tar Heels (31–9, 13–8 ACC) now move on to a weekend road series against last-place Pittsburgh (18–19, 5–13) beginning at 6 p.m. Friday. The Panthers, who host Mercyhurst at 6 p.m. Wednesday, got swept last weekend at Duke. The weather forecast for this weekend isn’t good, though, for the Pittsburgh area.

UNC, which stole five bases in two innings, never got a chance to stage a rally after falling behind early against Presbyterian (16–22), which has lost its last six games.

It was a short outing for graduate UNC starter Tom Chmielewski, who departed after five batters, getting one out and giving up a double, two singles and a walk.  Freshman right-hander Camron Seagraves came on after DH Jake Randolph’s two-run double and retired the next two batters to get out of the inning, but not before a third run scored on a groundout.

UNC second baseman Jackson Van De Brake scored in the first inning when he singled, stole second and third, and scored on third baseman Gavin Gallaher’s sacrifice fly.

After PC added a second-inning run on second baseman Trey Fenderson’s RBI single, UNC notched a pair of runs in that inning, highlighted by Kane Kepley’s RBI double over the left fielder’s head.

Seagraves gave up two hits, one run with no walks, and three strikeouts in 2⅔ innings before rain stopped the game.

Carolina only managed two hits, one each from Keply and Van De Brake.

It was supposed to be the first all-time meeting between UNC and Presbyterian and would have marked the 236th program the Tar Heels had faced.

---

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. No. 21 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. 19 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
11–13	Fri.-Sun.	W, 11–1 (7); W, 17–1 (7); W, 3–2	vs. Wake Forest	28–8, 11–7
15	Tuesday	W, 14–4 (8)	vs. Charlotte	29–8
18–20	Fri-Sun.	W, 9–6; L, 10–6: W, 7–5	at Virginia Tech	31–9, 13–8
22	Tuesday	Cancelled, rain	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. No. 25 N.C. State	ACCN (Sunday)
13	Tuesday	6 p.m.	vs. UNCW
15–17	Thu.–Sat.	6, 6, 2	at No. 4 Florida State	ACCN (Thurs., Fri.)
		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.

Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics