Tar Heels slug way to 9th ACC Tournament title

Carolina baseball earned its ninth ACC Tournament title Sunday, defeating Clemson, 14-4, at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. The third-ranked Tar Heels defeated Boston College, Florida State and the Tigers en route to their first tournament championship since 2022.

The Tar Heels’ (42-12) offense exploded to amass the program’s largest margin of victory in a title game. They now sit in a tie for the second most tournament championships in conference history.

Following the win, Carolina was announced as one of the 16 regional hosts for the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament, May 30-June 1. The Tar Heels play Holy Cross on Friday at noon, and Oklahoma and Nebraska are also in the regional.

Every starter scored for Carolina as the bats erupted for 13 hits, three doubles and three home runs (all in the fifth inning). The 14 runs are the most Carolina has scored in an ACC tournament game since 2007.

Captain Jackson Van De Brake led the way, as he did all weekend, with five RBIs on two hits, including a mammoth three-run shot as part of the eight-run fifth inning for the Heels. The senior has powered the Heels down the stretch, leading the team in hits (15) and RBIs (19) across their last 10 games.

But the danger came from the top to the bottom of the Carolina lineup, a recurring theme throughout the ACC tourney run.

Carolina struck first through Gavin Gallaher, who pinged a towering ball off the blue monster in left for a double that scored fellow sophomore Luke Stevenson. That started an avalanche of offense that would run unchecked. Gallaher, who had an incredible tourney at the plate, collected three hits and two doubles to wrap the weekend with a .400 batting average.

A sacrifice fly by Kane Kepley and RBI singles by Van De Brake and Alex Madera extended the Tar Heel lead to four runs through three innings. All that good work came dangerously close to falling apart in the fourth as first-year pitcher Ryan Lynch, working his first collegiate start, gave up consecutive singles and walk to start the frame.

With the bases loaded and no outs, Lynch locked in to put on a pitching masterclass: A strikeout looking, strikeout swinging and a groundout to Van De Brake at second got him out of the inning and kept the Tigers off the board. Lynch recorded seven strikeouts and surrendered just two hits over four scoreless innings.

“I thought the story of the game was Ryan Lynch,” Carolina coach Scott Forbes said. “Going out there as a true freshman, pitching like that and then loading the bases and not giving up one run? That’s hard to do against a team like Clemson.”

The fifth inning put the game out of reach for good as the Tar Heels scored eight runs, hit three homers and had nine batters reach base safely later. Hunter Stokely had the first of the big shots, a 399-foot moonshot to right for his 13th of the year and the first postseason home run of his career. Two batters later it was Tyson Bass who homered 377 feet to left center. Van De Brake’s rocket 408-foot rocket over the blue monster in left was the final homer of the inning.

Two more runs in the sixth made it 14-0 Carolina before Clemson scratched back a few consolation runs. Stevenson, the Tar Heels’ catcher, was named the tournament’s MVP and was joined on the All-Tournament team by pitcher Jake Knapp and Van De Brake.