Former Ashley pitcher earns win for UNC; former Ashley slugger gets first homer for Pack

CHAPEL HILL, NC (WWAY) – Here’s a link to the first collegiate homer for former Ashley baseball standout Shane Shepard. http://tinyurl.com/plua8rl (Shepard hit a solo shot for the Wolfpack in the 5th inning against UNC on Saturday.

Note: Combined, there are four players from Wilmington participating in this weekend’s NCSU-UNC baseball series.

Chance Shepard – Ashley
Shane Shepard – Ashley
Joe O’Donnell – Hoggard
Trevor Kelley – Ashley

——–

CHAPEL HILL, NC (UNC) — Zack Gahagan was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th to force in the deciding run as No. 22 North Carolina secure a series win with a 3-2 victory over NC State Saturday night at Boshamer Stadium. Tommy DeJuneas walked the bases loaded before hitting Gahagan with an 0-1 fastball to score Skye Bolt from third, giving the Tar Heels their fifth straight win. Trevor Kelley needed just 41 pitches to record the final 11 outs in relief of J.B. Bukauskas to pick up his third win of the year.

Logan Ratledge gave NC State (19-14, 7-9 ACC) a 1-0 lead in the fourth with a solo homer off Bukauskas. It was the first hit of the game for either team, as Bukauskas and Wolfpack starter Brian Brown were in command early.

Carolina (22-13, 9-8 ACC) immediately responded with a run in the bottom half, as Gahagan reached on a bad-hop single and later scored on a Joe Dudek RBI hit. The game followed the same script in the fifth when Shane Shepard homered in the top half before Bolt singled home Dunbar to make it 2-2.

That would be all the scoring until the 10th as Kelley and NCSU right-hander Curt Britt dueled back and forth in the later innings. Britt entered the game in the sixth and allowed just one hit over three scoreless frames while Kelley worked 3.2 hitless innings after coming on with one out in the seventh.

The Tar Heels threatened in the ninth when Dudek and Elijah Sutherland reached on back-to-back walks, but DeJuneas (1-2) struck out Korey Dunbar and Logan Warmoth before Brian Miller’s flyout to center sent the game to extra innings.

DeJuneas couldn’t work out of the jam in the 10th, however, as Bolt, Lassiter and Ramirez all drew tough walks before Gahagan was hit in the left arm.

Bukauskas, despite not having his best stuff, pitched into the seventh for the third straight game, allowing just two runs on four hits while striking two.

Benton Moss will try to get UNC its first conference sweep of the year when he starts opposite Johnny Piedmonte in Sunday’s series finale. The game, which is set for a 2 p.m. start, is sold out.

———–

CHAPEL HILL, NC (NCSU) — NC State suffered a 3-2, 10th-inning loss to No. 22 North Carolina on Saturday night at Boshamer Stadium.

The Wolfpack (19-14, 7-9 ACC) opened up a 1-0 lead in the fourth on Logan Ratledge’s sixth homer of the year, only to see that wiped out with a Tar Heel (22-13, 9-8) run in the bottom half. In the fifth, Shane Shepard cranked his first career homer to make it 2-1. Again, the Heels knotted the score 2-2 in the bottom half. In the bottom of the 10th, North Carolina drew three walks and a hit by pitch to walk off with the 3-2 win.

Ratledge and Shepard supplied two of the Pack’s four hits on the night, with Ratledge extending his team-leading hitting streak to 16 games, the longest such streak of the season for a Wolfpack batter. Preston Palmeiro went 1-for-4 on the evening. Andrew Knizner contributed a 1-for-3 outing.

NC State starter Brian Brown worked five innings, allowing two runs, one earned, on four hits and two walks with three strikeouts. Curt Britt relieved him and turned in a solid three innings, holding the Heels to one hit and one walk with a strikeout. Tommy DeJuneas (1-2) pitched an inning-plus, escaping a two-on, nobody out jam in the ninth, before enduring the 10th to end up saddled with the loss.