Carraway, UVa shut down UNC

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Considered a brainiac by fellow players, the Virginia baseball player that lives on the Lawn mowed down North Carolina’s batters in another prime position Saturday.

With his team having lost three straight ACC games, Virginia senior Andrew Carraway hurled seven effective innings, allowing just three hits as the 8th-ranked Cavaliers upended No. 5 North Carolina 5-2 to even the series.

“I was real excited. We had lost three tough ones in a row in the ACC and we have been in every one of those games and there is just a little bit that we need to get over the hump,” said Carraway, who allowed one earned run and improved to 4-0. “I was kind of excited to be in a position to help my team be able to do that.”

Virginia coach Brian O’Connor added: “After a difficult loss on Friday night where we had the lead late in the game, that is what a senior does. He goes out and gives us a great start. That is what we needed, and now we have a chance to win the series.”

Thanks to two home runs and opportunistic hitting, something that was missing in Virginia’s 4-3 loss late Friday evening, Carraway was merely part of the story for the Cavaliers (22-3, 6-3 ACC).

“It turned out today, I mean I threw strikes, but my role got to be limited because we played such great defense…and had two homers.”

Carraway was locked in a scoreless pitcher’s dual with North Carolina right-hander Adam Warren until Virginia opened the scoring in the fifth.

With runners at second and third following a sacrifice bunt from left fielder David Coleman, former Monticello High star Corey Hunt ripped an infield single that skipped away from UNC second baseman Levi Michael. Jarrett Parker followed with a sacrifice fly to left, putting the Cavs up 2-0.

“Corey put the ball in play and it happened to find a hole to create a couple of runs for us,” O’Connor said. “It was a big plate appearance, and I thought Corey played great defensively throughout today.”

Virginia third baseman Steven Proscia created further separation in the sixth as he blasted his fourth homer of the season, a blast that cleared the wall in left-center field.

“He got all of it for sure, and he said he knew it was out and he obviously thought it was out the way he didn’t run out of the box,” O’Connor said.

The booming shot off Warren (3-2) altered O’Connor’s thinking for the sixth and seventh inning, the first of which included a solo homer for UNC’s Dustin Ackley.

“It allowed us to manage a little bit differently,” he said. “It allowed Carraway to go out there for the seventh and get through that inning, which allowed us to go right to [closer Matt] Packer in the eighth instead of having to go to somebody else to close the gap to Packer.”

Parker added a solo homer in the seventh, his second of the series, and North Carolina right fielder Garrett Gore hit a ninth-inning solo homer off Packer as a steady rain fell.

Virginia finished with 10 hits and stranded only five runners. UNC threatened in a pair of innings early, but also left five on base.

“Andrew made his clutch pitches today against a great offensive lineup that had six or seven left-handed hitters,” O’Connor said. “That is where the game is won and lost. That’s where they won the game on Friday.

“We didn’t perform with runners in scoring position and they won the game. Today we did, and that is the story of the game.”

Virginia and UNC (19-6, 6-4) will close out the series today at 1 p.m.