By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — Holy Cross became the latest team to have its offense lapse into a slumber because it was Knapp time.
Buoyed by excellent defense, ACC Pitcher of the Year Jake Knapp mowed down the Crusaders as top-ranked North Carolina rolled to a 4–0 win Friday in the opener of the Chapel Hill Regional at Boshamer Stadium.
UNC (43–12) will No. 2 regional seed Oklahoma (36–20), a 7–4 winner over No. 3 Nebraska (32–28) at 6 p.m. Saturday in a winners’ bracket game (ESPNU). No. 4 Holy Cross (31–26) will play the Cornhuskers in a noon Saturday elimination game.
Third baseman Gavin Gallaher (top photo), a hitting star in last season’s Chapel Hill Regional opener, was 2 for 2 with two walks, an RBI and his first career triple.
Knapp (winner, 13–0), who took advantage of three double plays, gave up four hits and three walks while striking out seven in throwing a career-high 119 pitches in 8⅓ innings, escaping a bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning.
“That’s been Jake all year,” UNC coach Scott Forbes said. “He set the tone for us. He’s the reason we’ve had so much success since that Pitt series at winning series, because he goes out there and our arms are fresh the whole weekend.”
Knapp struck out the side after issuing a 3–2 leadoff walk to C.J. Egrie in a 23-pitch first inning. He worked around Jimmy King’s leadoff single in the second, thanks to a nice fielding play by second baseman Jackson Van De Brake to double up King to end the inning. Left fielder Carter French had his back to the left-field wall when he caught a Connor Peek drive in the fifth inning.
It was an emotional day for Knapp after undergoing Tommy John surgery, missing the previous season, including the run to Omaha, and delivering a huge outing.
“It was awesome,” said Knapp (below photo), whose ERA fell to 1.98. “That’s what I’ve been working for. The season’s been great, but I play baseball for postseason baseball. The adrenaline was high early. Walked the first guy but was able to settle in.”
Holy Cross used two walks and a single to load the bases in the sixth inning. Knapp elicited a fly out to center field — with respect for center fielder Kane Kepley’s arm preventing a run from scoring — and struck out Gianni Royer on a 97-mph fastball to escape the jam.
Knapp was emotional coming off the mound after that strikeout.
“I knew in that situation, one of those moments where I did have to reach back,” Knapp said. “I knew I had some more in the tank. In a big situation like that, [I’m] not going to leave anything out there. I was definitely grunting more than I usually do.”
Gallaher said that Knapp’s celebration pumped up everybody.
“Jake’s a guy that doesn’t always show a ton of emotion on the mound, so to see him fired up definitely got us going a little bit going back into the dugout,” Gallaher said.
Knapp was in his typical aggressive mode on the mound, not afraid to challenge hitters, knowing that his fastball is in the mid-90s.
“It’s been my mindset to just attack and try to let other teams put the ball in play,” Knapp said, “not necessarily chasing strikeouts or any of that, trying to get deep and have quick innings. And the defense is great, and they’ve helped me all year. So, that’s honestly the biggest key for me: just having the other team put the ball in play and trusting those guys behind me.”
Knapp’s outing was the longest by a UNC pitcher in the NCAA tournament since Hobbs Johnson also went 8⅓ innings in a 7–0 win over N.C. State in the 2013 College World Series.
“Jake has an elite fastball. It doesn’t have to be 94, 95,” Forbes said. “Going to beat a lot of barrels. It’s hard to get the bat head out front on his fastball because of that rise.”
UNC narrowly missed home runs in the first two innings against Holy Cross starter Danny Macchiarola (loser, 9–5) when balls hit by Luke Stevenson in the first inning and Tyson Bass in the second inning sailed foul. Kepley (below) was left stranded at third base in the third inning after walking and stealing two bases.
“He’s out of the gate, 94, 95, a sinker with a good cutter,” Forbes said of Macchiarola. “We were hitting some balls hard. Credit our guys; they stayed with it.”
Royer, Holy Cross’ center fielder, just missed a Gallaher drive that went off the wall in left-center with one out in the fourth inning for Gallaher’s triple and UNC’s first hit.
“I’ve had a lot of close calls around second base, and I know myself as a runner, so finally got one that bounced off the wall far enough away from the guy to really kick into the next gear,” Gallaher said.
“When you have a guy on the mound that has got some good stuff, like their pitcher had today, sometimes all it takes is one hit, and then it kind of gets everybody else going,” Gallaher said. “So, I think that’s something that we’ve done really well, is that we’re able to capitalize the momentum, keeping that on our side, and then taking advantage of mistakes when they give them to us.”
Hunter Stokely followed with a looping RBI single to left field. Two-out RBI hits to left field — a Bass double and a Sam Angelo single — gave the Tar Heels a 3–0 lead.
Gallaher singled home Van De Brake in the fifth inning after he led off with a double to right-center field.
Knapp said there was no discussion about coming out of the game until Forbes told him he was coming out in the ninth inning if he gave up a baserunner.
Freshman right-hander Walker McDuffie relieved Knapp after Chris Baillargon’s one-out single up the middle in the ninth inning. McDuffie elicited a groundout and got a strikeout to finish off the win.
“We didn’t play our best baseball game and when you play a team like North Carolina — one of, if
not the best team in America — it takes your best baseball game to beat them,” Holy Cross coach Ed Kahovec said.
NOTES — Knapp’s previous career-high pitch total was 116 this season against Wake Forest. … This is the NCAA-high 13th time UNC has been a regional host since 2006. … It’s the first NCAA appearance for Holy Cross since 2017. … It was the first meeting between UNC and Holy Cross in 107 years. Holy Cross won 18–1 in the only previous meeting in 1918 in a game in Chapel Hill. … It was UNC’s first game at the Bosh in 21 days (the 6–5 May 9 loss to N.C. State). … Angelo went 1 for 2 with an RBI starting at DH, getting his first at-bats since that May 9 State game and his first game with multiple at-bats since April 30 against Queens. He walked in a plate appearance on May 16 at Florida State. … With Kepley’s two steals, he became the fourth Tar Heel with 40 in a season, joining Brian Roberts (47 in 1997 and 63 in 1998), Russ Adams (45 in 2002) and Chad Holbrook (40 in 1993).
No. 1 UNC 4, Holy Cross 0
Chapel Hill Regional
At Boshamer Stadium
Friday’s results
No. 1 North Carolina 4, Holy Cross 0
No. 2 Oklahoma 7, No. 3 Nebraska 4
Saturday’s results
Nebraska 4, Holy Cross 1; Holy Cross eliminated
North Carolina 11, Oklahoma 5
Sunday’s results
Oklahoma 17, Nebraska 1; Nebraska eliminated
Oklahoma 9, North Carolina 5
Monday’s result
North Carolina 14, Oklahoma 4
UNC (45–13) advances to Super Regional against No. 21-ranked Arizona (42–18), which won the Eugene Regional on Sunday night with a 14–0 win over Cal Poly. Game 1 of the best-of-3 series is Friday at Boshamer Stadium.
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 |
Photos by Smith Hardy
tarheeltribune.com 