By R.L. Bynum

DURHAM — No. 3 North Carolina was the last team to play in the ACC tournament, and the Tar Heels’ offense was slow to arrive.

After leaving seven runners stranded in the first six innings, the wildness of five Boston College pitchers in the seventh inning helped jump-start the Tar Heels’ offense in a 7–2 victory Friday in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

UNC (40–12) advanced to meet No. 2-seed and No. 6-ranked Florida State (38–18), which beat Duke 14–7 in Friday’s first quarterfinal, in a 5 p.m. semifinal Saturday (ACC Network), with sophomore Jason DeCaro (8–3, 3.37 ERA) starting for the Tar Heels. No. 1-seed and No. 16-ranked Georgia Tech (40–16) faces No. 5-seed and No. 14-ranked Clemson (43–15) in the first semifinal at 1 p.m.

Carolina ace right-hander Jake Knapp (winner, 12–0), the program’s first ACC Pitcher of the Year since J.B. Bukauskas in 2016 and fifth overall, faced a rare deficit after BC scored two runs in the third, but worked into a groove. He retired the last 10 Eagles he faced, giving up five hits and two runs with no walks and four strikeouts in seven innings.

“Jake settled in, and I thought that was the story of the game,” UNC coach Scott Forbes said.

Carolina scored five runs on only three hits in the seventh, thanks to three walks, a wild pitch and a hit by pitch, keyed by Jackson Van De Brake’s two-run double down the right-field line to tie the game at two.

“I was able to just get a two-strike pitch over the plate that I was able to get my hands through,” Van De Brake said. “Not a super-comfortable at bat. Got one over the plate, was able to get the barrel to it.”

Luke Stevenson made it a rout in the eighth inning with a two-run home run to center field.

“We kept plugging and plugging, and a really big pinch-hit walk by Perry Hargett and then to get guys on base and Vandy to come up big right there,” Forbes said. “And I know that felt really good for Luke to hit that home run and also drive in that run.”

Boston College (28–29) finished its season after a pair of late-night/early-morning victories in the tournament’s first two rounds.

Eagles starter A.J. Colarusso, pitching after throwing 72 pitches two days earlier, was impressive against UNC, consistently attacking the strike zone. He threw 109 pitches and repeatedly pitched out of trouble, giving up five hits and one run while walking four and striking out nine in 6+ innings.

“That was impressive. That’s an old-school pitching mentality that a lot of people don’t have anymore. So I thought that was extremely impressive,” Forbes said. “He was tough on us in Boston, tough on us again.”

Knapp escaped a two-on, no-out first-inning jam and had retired seven straight batters before Boston College got three straight two-out hits in the third inning. The Eagles plated two runs on Patrick Roche’s RBI double to left-center field and Jack Toomey’s RBI single to left.

UNC left two runners stranded in the fourth inning and the bases loaded in the fifth inning. In the latter, Colarusso struck out Stevenson looking on a 3–2 pitch right down the middle to end the inning.

After walking pinch-hitter Hargett to start the seventh inning on a 3–2 pitch, his 109th pitch, Colarusso gave way to left-hander J.D. Ogden, who departed after two walks loaded the bases.

“I thought Perry had really good BP the last couple of days, like he was more on time,” Forbes said. “He’s a freshman, but he’s not fazed by the big moment. And I felt like we needed somebody in that situation who could work a walk, not necessarily go up there and ambush a fastball, because I thought [Colarusso] was getting tired.”

After Van De Brake greeted sidewinding right-hander Dylan Howanitz with his big double, John Kwiatkowski came on. He threw a wild pitch that scored Kane Kepley and gave up Stevenson’s drive through the right side for a single and another run. Peter Schaefer, the fifth pitcher of the inning, gave up an RBI single to Lee Sowers.

Freshman Walker McDuffie pitched two shutout, hitless innings to pick up his fifth save, striking out three batters.

Forbes said Knapp may have had too much rest, pitching for the first time in eight days, leading him to bring on McDuffie even though Knapp had thrown only 83 pitches because of what Forbes called some “loud outs.”

NOTES — Forbes isn’t assuming anything, and won’t name a Sunday starter unless UNC wins Saturday. … UNC is the No. 4 overall seed in D1 Baseball’s latest NCAA tournament projection. … UNC is 9–3 in the ACC tournament under Forbes, including winning the 2022 championship. … Carolina is 93–73 in the ACC tournament, the second-most wins in conference history. … As a No. 3 seed, UNC is 6–9. … UNC won for the third time in four meetings with Boston College this season, and leads the all-time series 34–7, including 3–0 in ACC tournament play. … Carolina took two of three games from Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla., last weekend.

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No. 3 UNC 7, BC 2

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ACC tournament

At Durham Bulls Athletic Park
Buy tickets at durhambulls.com or theacc.com/tickets
Tuesday’s first round
No. 16 California 12, No. 9 Miami 2, 8 innings
No. 12 Virginia Tech 7, No. 13 Stanford 4
No. 15 Pittsburgh 13, No. 10 Louisville 11
No. 14 Boston College 5, No. 11 Notre Dame 4, 10 innings
Wednesday’s second round
California 14, No. 8 seed Wake Forest 12
No. 5 Clemson 6, Virginia Tech 1
No. 7 Duke 4, Pittsburgh 3
Boston College 12, No. 6 Virginia 8
Quarterfinals
Thursday’s results
No. 1 seed Georgia Tech 10, California 3
Clemson 7, No. 4 seed N.C. State 6
Friday’s results
No. 2 seed Florida State 14, Duke 7
No. 3 seed North Carolina 7, Boston College 2
Saturday’s semifinals
Clemson 9, Georgia Tech 4
North Carolina 7, Florida State 5
Sunday’s championship
North Carolina 14, Clemson 4

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UNC scores

Date(s)	Day/ month	Scores	Opponent (current rank)	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. 11 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 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
25–27	Fri.-Sun.	W, 15–5; L, 4–2; W, 6–0	at Pittsburgh	33–10, 15–9
29	Tuesday	W, 13–4	vs. George Mason	34–10
30	Wednesday	W, 14–3	vs. Queens	35–10
	May
6	Tuesday	W, 10–1	vs. Campbell	36–10
8–9	Thurs.-Fri.	W, 8–1; L, 8–5	vs. N.C. State	37–11, 16–10
15–17	Thurs.-Sat.	W, 8–3; W, 11–1 (7); L, 5–4	at No. 7 Florida State	39–12, 18–11
		ACC tournament	Durham
23	Friday	Quarterfinal: W, 7–3	Boston College	40–12
24	Saturday	Semifinal: W, 7–5	No. 7 Florida State	41–12
25	Sunday	Final: W, 14–4	No. 14 Clemson	42–12
		Chapel Hill Regional
30	Friday	W, 4–0	Holy Cross	43–12
31	Saturday	W, 11–5	Oklahoma	44–12
	June
1	Sunday	L, 9–5	Oklahoma	44–13
2	Monday	W, 14–4	Oklahoma	45–13
		Chapel Hill Super Regional	Best-of-3 series
6	Friday	W, 18–2	No. 21 Arizona	46–13
7	Saturday	L, 10–8	No. 21 Arizona	46–14
8	Sunday	L, 4–3	No. 21 Arizona	46–15

Photo courtesy of the ACC