BY UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
BLACKSBURG, Va. --- No. 3 North Carolina hits the road for the last time this regular season when the Tar Heels visit Virginia Tech for the first of three Friday at 5:30 p.m. at English Field. Carolina swept an eight-game homestand to improve to 39-9 on the year. Included among the eight wins was a three-game sweep of No. 3 Clemson that saw the Tar Heels improve to 19-5 in the ACC. Virginia Tech snapped a six-game losing streak Tuesday with a 17-5 win over Northeastern, but the Hokies are just 8-16 in the league after being swept at NC State last weekend.
PROBABLE STARTERS
Saturday • Noon
UNC - RHP J.B. Bukauskas (8-0, 1.51 ERA) VT - RHP Connor Coward (5-2, 4.37 ERA)
Saturday • 4 p.m.
UNC - RHP Gianluca Dalatri (5-2, 2.37 ERA) VT - LHP Kit Scheetz (3-2, 3.69 ERA)
Sunday • 1 p.m.
UNC - TBA VT - TBA
AT A GLANCE
Records: North Carolina 39-9 (19-5 ACC), Virginia Tech 21-27 (8-16 ACC)
Rankings: North Carolina is ranked No. 3 in all of the national polls. Virginia Tech is unranked.
Video: Saturday | Sunday
Audio: GoHeels.com
On The Web: GoHeels.com • Twitter: @DiamondHeels
NORTH CAROLINA-VIRGINIA TECH SERIES HISTORY
• North Carolina is 70-25-2 all-time against Virginia Tech, including a 31-3 record under head coach Mike Fox.
• Carolina has dominated the series since Virginia Tech joined the ACC in 2004-05. The Tar Heels are 31-3 against the Hokies since 2005 and have won 11 of 12 league series between the two schools.
• The Tar Heels took two of three from the Hokies last season in Chapel Hill. Carolina got back-to-back gems from Zac Gallen (complete game shutout) and J.B. Bukauskas (7.1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 13 K) to win 6-0 and 4-1 before VT salvaged the finale, 4-3.
• UNC and Virginia Tech split a pair of games in Blacksburg in 2015. The Hokies snapped a 22-game losing streak in the series with an 8-3 win before Carolina took game two, 11-10. The series finale was canceled due to rain.
QUICK HITS
• Carolina ranks second in the ACC and fifth nationally in pitching with a staff ERA of 2.70.
• With a sweep of Clemson, UNC has won its first eight ACC series for the first time in program history. The 2008 team holds the record for most league series wins with nine.
• Carolina became the first team to sweep Clemson and Florida State in the same season since 2004, when Georgia Tech did the same double. No other team has swept both the Tigers and the Seminoles since FSU joined the ACC.
• The Tar Heels swept Florida State for the second time in program history and the first time ever in Tallahassee.
• UNC started ACC play with series wins over divisional foes Virginia, Georgia Tech and Miami. This marks the first time the Tar Heels have won series against those three in the same season since 2009.
• Junior Brian Miller recently reached a career milestone with his 50th multi-hit game as a Tar Heel. The outfielder from Raleigh did it in style recording four hits and driving in three runs in the 11-2 win over Elon on April 25. A career .317 hitter, Miller is 20 hits shy of 200.
• The Tar Heels established a new school record for runs in a three-game ACC series by scoring 48 times in the sweep at BC. The previous mark was 45 at Duke in 2002. The 20-5 win over South Carolina pushed the four-game total to 68 runs, the most over four games since 1987.
• Redshirt freshman closer Josh Hiatt has 13 saves, second in the ACC and fifth-most nationally. Hiatt is already alone in fifth on the UNC single-season saves list.
• Junior J.B. Bukauskas ranks in the top 20 nationally in strikeouts (12th, 96), hits allowed per nine innings (10th, 5.27), wins (11th, 8), WHIP (17th, 0.893) and ERA (13th, 1.51). He was named to the D1Baseball and Rawlings/Perfect Game Midseason All-America first teams, earning Midseason Top Pitcher honors from D1Baseball.
• Freshman Gianluca Dalatri is fourth in the ACC in innings pitched with 76.0 in 11 starts, an average of almost seven innings per outing.
• Carolina allowed five runs or fewer in each of the first 23 games of the 2017 season. That was the longest such streak in 106 seasons. The Tar Heels went 25 straight without allowing more than five across the 1910 and 1911 campaigns.
• Mike Fox recorded his 800th win at Carolina on Feb. 19 against Kentucky. He is UNC's all-time winningest coach and has over 1,300 total wins in his 34 year career.
Complete Weekend Notes (PDF)
BLACKSBURG, Va. --- No. 3 North Carolina hits the road for the last time this regular season when the Tar Heels visit Virginia Tech for the first of three Friday at 5:30 p.m. at English Field. Carolina swept an eight-game homestand to improve to 39-9 on the year. Included among the eight wins was a three-game sweep of No. 3 Clemson that saw the Tar Heels improve to 19-5 in the ACC. Virginia Tech snapped a six-game losing streak Tuesday with a 17-5 win over Northeastern, but the Hokies are just 8-16 in the league after being swept at NC State last weekend.
PROBABLE STARTERS
Saturday • Noon
UNC - RHP J.B. Bukauskas (8-0, 1.51 ERA) VT - RHP Connor Coward (5-2, 4.37 ERA)
Saturday • 4 p.m.
UNC - RHP Gianluca Dalatri (5-2, 2.37 ERA) VT - LHP Kit Scheetz (3-2, 3.69 ERA)
Sunday • 1 p.m.
UNC - TBA VT - TBA
AT A GLANCE
Records: North Carolina 39-9 (19-5 ACC), Virginia Tech 21-27 (8-16 ACC)
Rankings: North Carolina is ranked No. 3 in all of the national polls. Virginia Tech is unranked.
Video: Saturday | Sunday
Audio: GoHeels.com
On The Web: GoHeels.com • Twitter: @DiamondHeels
NORTH CAROLINA-VIRGINIA TECH SERIES HISTORY
• North Carolina is 70-25-2 all-time against Virginia Tech, including a 31-3 record under head coach Mike Fox.
• Carolina has dominated the series since Virginia Tech joined the ACC in 2004-05. The Tar Heels are 31-3 against the Hokies since 2005 and have won 11 of 12 league series between the two schools.
• The Tar Heels took two of three from the Hokies last season in Chapel Hill. Carolina got back-to-back gems from Zac Gallen (complete game shutout) and J.B. Bukauskas (7.1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 13 K) to win 6-0 and 4-1 before VT salvaged the finale, 4-3.
• UNC and Virginia Tech split a pair of games in Blacksburg in 2015. The Hokies snapped a 22-game losing streak in the series with an 8-3 win before Carolina took game two, 11-10. The series finale was canceled due to rain.
QUICK HITS
• Carolina ranks second in the ACC and fifth nationally in pitching with a staff ERA of 2.70.
• With a sweep of Clemson, UNC has won its first eight ACC series for the first time in program history. The 2008 team holds the record for most league series wins with nine.
• Carolina became the first team to sweep Clemson and Florida State in the same season since 2004, when Georgia Tech did the same double. No other team has swept both the Tigers and the Seminoles since FSU joined the ACC.
• The Tar Heels swept Florida State for the second time in program history and the first time ever in Tallahassee.
• UNC started ACC play with series wins over divisional foes Virginia, Georgia Tech and Miami. This marks the first time the Tar Heels have won series against those three in the same season since 2009.
• Junior Brian Miller recently reached a career milestone with his 50th multi-hit game as a Tar Heel. The outfielder from Raleigh did it in style recording four hits and driving in three runs in the 11-2 win over Elon on April 25. A career .317 hitter, Miller is 20 hits shy of 200.
• The Tar Heels established a new school record for runs in a three-game ACC series by scoring 48 times in the sweep at BC. The previous mark was 45 at Duke in 2002. The 20-5 win over South Carolina pushed the four-game total to 68 runs, the most over four games since 1987.
• Redshirt freshman closer Josh Hiatt has 13 saves, second in the ACC and fifth-most nationally. Hiatt is already alone in fifth on the UNC single-season saves list.
• Junior J.B. Bukauskas ranks in the top 20 nationally in strikeouts (12th, 96), hits allowed per nine innings (10th, 5.27), wins (11th, 8), WHIP (17th, 0.893) and ERA (13th, 1.51). He was named to the D1Baseball and Rawlings/Perfect Game Midseason All-America first teams, earning Midseason Top Pitcher honors from D1Baseball.
• Freshman Gianluca Dalatri is fourth in the ACC in innings pitched with 76.0 in 11 starts, an average of almost seven innings per outing.
• Carolina allowed five runs or fewer in each of the first 23 games of the 2017 season. That was the longest such streak in 106 seasons. The Tar Heels went 25 straight without allowing more than five across the 1910 and 1911 campaigns.
• Mike Fox recorded his 800th win at Carolina on Feb. 19 against Kentucky. He is UNC's all-time winningest coach and has over 1,300 total wins in his 34 year career.
Complete Weekend Notes (PDF)
