UNC Tar Heels baseball falls 12-11 at home to Davidson Wildcats

No. 17 North Carolina scored six runs in the ninth, but Davdison’s Ty Middlebrooks made a jugging catch at the wall for the final out of the game as the visiting Wildcats held on for a 12-11 win Tuesday at Boshamer Stadium.

Korey Dunbar and Brian Miller had four hits each for the Tar Heels, who also got home runs from Alex Raburn and Logan Warmoth but couldn’t quite overcome a 10-0 deficit in falling to 12-8 on the year.

Davidson (10-5) raced out to its big lead with runs in three of the first four innings. The Wildcats scored a pair of unearned runs in the first off A.J. Bogucki (0-2) and pushed the lead to 7-0 in the third with Alec Acosta’s three-run double.

David Daniels’ homer was the big blow in the fourth and it was 10-0 before Carolina (12-8) finally scored on Warmoth’s first career long ball.

A pair of bases-loaded walks in the seventh restored the Davidson lead to 10 runs before UNC’s rally began in earnest. Zack Gahagan, who drove in four runs on the day, made it 12-4 in the bottom of the seventh with a two-run double before Warmoth’s RBI single pulled the Tar Heels within seven.

Duke: After Columbia scored an early run on two hits in the top of the first, Duke’s Andy Perez sent the first pitch he saw over the right field fence. Perez and Jack Labosky combined for four RBI in a 5-2 victory over the Lions.

N.C. State: The team trimmed its deficit on Preston Palmeiro’s ninth-inning homer but fell short 7-3 at UNC Greensboro.

The Wolfpack (10-8) took a 1-0 lead in the first, before posting seven scoreless innings to follow, while allowing the Spartans (7-10) to race out to a 7-1 lead with a four-run fourth and two in the eighth. Palmeiro’s two-run home run made it manageable with nobody out, but State couldn’t find a finishing kick.

N.C. Central: Senior Jordan Quinn has been selected is the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Baseball Pitcher of the Week for his performance during the week of March 2-8.

A native of Goldsboro, Quinn posted an ERA of 1.98 in 13.2 innings of work as a starter in two games, allowing just three earned runs with nine strikeouts and just two walks.

In a 2-1 conference win over rival North Carolina A&T, he surrendered just one run in 7.1 innings on the hill with seven strikeouts and one walk.

Duke: Maddie Crutchfield is ACC Defensive Player of the Week.

Mount Olive: The No. 11 team (7-2 overall, 2-0 Conference Carolinas) scored the first 15 goals of the game and went on to defeat Lees-McRae (1-7, 0-3) 18-3 in Conference Carolinas play at Banner Elk. Jake Duarte led Mount Olive with three goals, while five other Trojans scored two goals apiece.

N.C. State: Five gymnasts were selected to the All-East Atlantic Gymnastics League teams for the 2015 season. They are junior Brittni Watkins, senior Lane Jarred, junior Michaela Woodford, sophomore Amanda Fillard and freshman Chelsea Knight.

N.C. Central: Junior London Booker is MEAC Pitcher of the Week. Booker, a right-handed pitcher from Richmond, Va., pitched 24.0 innings and recorded a 3-1 record against Gardner-Webb, Jackson State, Grambling State and Mississippi Valley State.

This story was originally published March 17, 2015 at 10:28 PM with the headline "UNC Tar Heels baseball falls 12-11 at home to Davidson Wildcats."