Published Feb 27, 2019
VCU Tops Carolina, 11-8, For First Loss Of The Season
UNC Athletic Communications
UNC Athletic Communications

Chapel Hill – North Carolina dropped its first game of the season Wednesday to VCU, 11-8, to end its 26-game home winning streak, which was the longest in the country. Dylan Harris paces the Heels with two hits and two runs while Michael Busch hit a three-run home run in the second inning for his second of the year.

Josh Dotson started the game on the mound ofr the Heels and went 3.2 innings in his second start of the season. Caden O'Brien picked up the loss, the first of his collegiate career, to go 1-1 on the season.

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KEY MOMENTS

With two outs in the top of the third inning, Josh Dotson hit a batter and gave up back-to-back doubles as the Rams scored the first two runs of the game to lead, 2-0.

Michael Busch answered in the bottom of the third with a two out, three-run home run for his second of the year, to give the Heels a 3-2 lead.

With two outs and two strikes in the top of the fourth inning, the Rams hit a three-run home run to retake the lead, 5-3. All five runs given up by Josh Dotson were with two outs.

In the bottom of the 4th, Ben Casparius hit a two-out RBI double to right field to cut the VCU lead to 5-4.

Carolina scored three runs in the bottom of 5th with two outs to take the 7-5 lead. One run was scored off a VCU balk, one was driven in with a RBI double from Caleb Roberts and the final run crossed the plate after Ashton McGee got caught in a pickle at first, but Roberts sprinted home before the tag was applied to McGee.

VCU responded with five runs of their own, all with two outs, in the top of the sixth inning to retake the lead, 10-7.

NOTABLES

Michael Busch hit his second home run of the year in the third inning with a three-run blast to right field. Busch now has 6 RBI on the year, all coming by the way of home run.

Bennett Nance made his first collegiate appearance in the fourth inning for the Heels as he came on in relief of Josh Dotson.

Kyle Beldinger made his first appearance of the season for the Heels on the mound in the 6th inning coming on in relief of Caden O'Brien.

17 out of the 19 total runs between UNC and VCU came with two outs. 11 runs scored by VCU are the most the Heels have given up all season. The previous high was 3 on multiple occasions.

12 hits are the most allowed by the Tar Heels all season. The second highest was 11 by Xavier in the first weekend of the season.

Ashton McGee increased his team leading reached base streak to 14 consecutive games.

The loss ends the Tar Heels 26-game home winning streak, which was the longest in the country. The last time the Heels lost at home was on March 25 against Florida State.

UP NEXT

The Tar Heels will be back at Boshamer Stadium on Friday for a three-game series against UMass Lowell. Friday's game starts at 3 p.m. with Saturday beginning at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.