Miami Drops Opener to No. 8 North Carolina, 7-2
| GAME SUMMARY |
| Miami27No. 8 North Carolina |
Box Score | Season Stats |
| Next Game: Saturday | 4:00 p.m. | No. 9 UNC | Chapel Hill, N.C. | Tickets |
| INDIVIDUAL LEADERS | |
| Miami | North Carolina |
| Johnny Ruiz | J.B. Bukauskas |
| 1-2, R, 2 BB | 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K |
| LINESCORE | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | ||||
| 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 0 | ||||
| PITCHING | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | |||||||
| W – J. Bukauskas (4-0) | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | ||||||
| L – J. Lepore (1-3) | 3.0 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 0 | ||||||
| LINEUPS | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | ||||||||||
| 1 Batista DH | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||||||||||
| 2 Ruiz 2B | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 3 Chester CF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 4 Gonzalez 1B/3B | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||
| 5 Burns RF — Baldor PH/RF — Sanchez PH — Tackett RF |
2 1 1 0 |
0 |
0 0 0 0 |
0 0 0 0 |
0 0 0 0 |
1 1 1 0 |
||||||||||
| 6 Gali SS | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 7 Michelangeli 3B — Veliz PH — Barr 1B |
1 1 1 |
0 0 0 |
0 0 0 |
0 0 0 |
1 0 0 |
1 0 0 |
||||||||||
|
8 Gomez C |
2 0 1 |
0 1 0 |
0 0 0 |
0 0 0 |
0 1 0 |
1 0 0 |
||||||||||
| 9 Davison LF | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| TOTAL | 30 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 11 | ||||||||||
| North Carolina | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | ||||||||||
| 1 Miller CF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 2 Warmoth SS | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 3 McGee DH | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 4 Datres 3B | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 5 Lynn LF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
|
6 Gahagan 2B/1B |
3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 7 Riley RF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 8 Roberts C | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 9 Busch 1B — Jones PH — Freeman |
3 1 0 |
0 0 0 |
0 0 0 |
1 0 0 |
0 0 0 |
0 0 0 |
||||||||||
| TOTAL | 34 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 2 | ||||||||||
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The Miami Hurricanes dropped their series opener to No. 8 North Carolina Friday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium, falling to the Tar Heels 7-2 in the first of a three-game set.
Junior righthander Jesse Lepore (1-3) struggled with his command in his shortest start of the season.
The Tar Heels (17-5, 5-2 ACC) drew five walks against Lepore and tagged the Beverly Hills, Fla., native for six runs (five earned) in 3.0+ innings.
Miami (10-12, 3-4 ACC) was stymied by Tar Heels ace righthander J.B. Bukauskas, considered one of the nation’s top pitchers.
Bukauskas struck out nine batters and walked two across 107 pitches. He allowed just three hits – all singles – to pick up the win.
The hosts struck for five runs over the game’s first three innings to jump out to an early lead in front of 1,063 fans.
Miami broke North Carolina’s shutout bid on an RBI single from junior Carl Chester off Tar Heels reliever Jason Morgan with two outs in the eighth.
Trevor Gay entered and walked sophomore Romy Gonzalez to load the bases, and a wild pitch from reliever Zach Attianese scored senior Johnny Ruiz to make it 7-2.
Bukauskas (4-0) did not allow a hit until a leadoff single from junior Randy Batista in the fourth inning. Ruiz followed with a walk, but Bukauskas stranded two runners in scoring position when he got junior Michael Burns to pop out to left to end the inning.
Ruiz’s walk extended his streak of reaching base to 16 straight games.
Senior Ryan Guerra entered in the fourth with two runners on base and allowed just one run, and tossed a season-long 3.0 innings in relief.
Redshirt sophomore Daniel Epstein tossed the final two innings for Miami and did not allow a hit.
The two teams return to Boshamer Stadium Saturday for Game Two of the three-game series. First pitch for the contest, slated for broadcast on ACC Network Extra & WVUM 90.5 FM, is set for 4:30 p.m.
