Carolina Flexes Muscle Against Liberty

Chapel Hill, N.C. – Multiple North Carolina baseball records were broken on Saturday night when the Tar Heels beat Liberty 16-1 to advance to the Chapel Hill Regional Final on Sunday, June 2 at 6 p.m. The Tar Heels broke the game open in the seventh inning thanks to home runs from Michael Busch, Aaron Sabato and Brandon Martorano. The five team home runs were the most ever in an NCAA Tournament game under head coach Mike Fox.

The 15-run margin of victory by North Carolina ties the largest margin of victory ever in an NCAA Tournament game. The Tar Heels previous 15-run NCAA Tournament victory came in their first ever NCAA Tournament game in 1948 when they beat Georgia Tech 15-0 in the District III Regional.

Freshman Aaron Sabato broke the UNC freshman home run record by hitting his 16th home run of the year. The previous record was held by Chad Flack who hit 15 in 2005.

Dylan Harris gave the Tar Heels a 1-0 lead in the first inning with one swing of the bat as he launched his seventh home run over the right field fence and in to the field hockey stadium.

Harris doubled the Tar Heel lead in the fourth inning with a two-out RBI single up the middle to score Danny Serretti from second base.

Ashton McGee doubled the Tar Heel lead in the sixth inning with a two-run home run, his sixth of the year, to make it 4-0.

After giving up back-to-back walks to start the sixth inning, Austin Love picked up three ground ball outs in a row to keep the game scoreless.

Michael Busch extended his career best reached base streak to 34 consecutive games with a two-run home run in the seventh inning to make it 6-0.

Freshman Aaron Sabato followed Busch with a solo home run of his own, giving him 16 for the year. The 16 home runs by Sabato set a new UNC freshman record for home runs in a season, besting the previous record of 15 set by Chad Flack in 2005.

Not to be outdone, Brandon Martorano launched a three-run home run in the seventh inning to make it 10-0.

UNC scored four runs on four hits in the eighth inning to take a 14-0 lead.

Aaron Sabato hit his 16th home run of the season which sets the UNC freshman record for home runs, besting the previous record of 15 home runs set by Chad Flack in 2005.

Brandon Martorano hit his 8th home run of the season with a three-run shot in the seventh inning.

Michael Busch and Aaron Sabato hit back-to-back home runs in the 7th inning. It was the first time for the Heels since Ashton McGee and Brandon Martorano hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning against Coastal Carolina on April 23.

Michael Busch and Aaron Sabato are only the second duo to each hit for 15 or more home runs in the same season. The only other duo to do so was Marshall Hubbard (17) and Chris Iannetta (15) back in 2004. Busch and Sabato are the first duo to hit for 16 or more home runs in the same season under Coach Fox.

With his 16th home run of the season, Michael Busch now has 29 home runs in the last two years. That is tied for second most by one player in a two-year span under head coach Mike Fox. He trails Chris Maples, who hit 30 home runs from 2001-2002, and is tied with Dustin Ackley (2008-2009) and Ryan Earey (199-2000) who also hit 29 home runs in back-to-back seasons.

UNC has now hit 75 home runs on the season, putting them in second place all-time for most home runs hit by a UNC team in a single season. They only trail the 2006 which set the record with 83 home runs.

The 5 home runs hit tonight by the Tar Heels are the most ever in an NCAA Tournament game under head coach Mike Fox.

Will Sandy is the first UNC freshman lefty to start an NCAA Tournament game since Kent Emanuel threw a complete-game shutout against Texas in the 2011 College World Series.

Dylan Harris hit his 7th home run of the season in the second inning. It' his first home run since April 21 at Notre Dame. UNC is 6-0 in his previous six games with a home run.

Harris collected his third multi-hit and multi-RBI game of the year on Saturday. He also had multiple hits and multiple RBIs in the same game on March 2 against UMass Lowell and May 14 against High Point.

Ashton McGee hit his sixth home run of the year in the sixth inning. Five of his six home runs have come since April 23.

Dallas Tessar extended his career best hitting streak to 6 consecutive games with a single in the seventh inning.

Michael Busch extended his reached base streak to 34 consecutive games, which is a team and career high.

With his 8th inning RBI single, Ike Freeman has driven in a RBI in six straight games.

Every starter for UNC had at least one hit for the Tar Heels.

UNC is now 10-1 with Dallas Tessar in the starting lineup.

UNC is 18-1 in games where they have hit two or more home runs.

Aaron Sabato extended his career best reached base streak to 23 consecutive games.

Win: North Carolina, Hansen Butler (5-0)

Lose: Liberty, Andrew Mcinvale (10-3)

North Carolina will play the winner of the game between Tennessee and Liberty tomorrow at 6 p.m. in the Chapel Hill Regional final.