UNC baseball makes history with dominant Le Moyne sweep
· Yahoo Sports
The North Carolina Tar Heels' baseball program capped a dominant week with a three-game sweep of Le Moyne.
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The sweep marked the first time the Diamond Heels have taken a series with three straight run-rule victories. UNC is 11-1-1, with seven of those 11 wins coming via the run rule. The series was the Tar Heels’ final nonconference weekend of the 2026 regular season.
North Carolina outscored the Dolphins 49-6, piling up 35 hits, 15 extra-base hits and seven home runs. First baseman Erik Paulsen went 6-for-10 with six RBIs and his fifth homer of the season, while outfielder Cooper Nicholson added two home runs.
Here is a recap of each game.
Game 1 - UNC 16, Lemoyne 3 (7 innings)
A disciplined, power-heavy lineup lifted North Carolina to a 16-3 run-rule win over visiting Le Moyne on Friday.
The Tar Heels paired patience with pop, working a season-high 10 walks while striking out only five times. They grabbed control with a five-run first inning, sparked by a two-out, bases-clearing double to right-center from Nicholson.
Gavin Gallaher followed with a two-run homer in the second and finished his night with a home run and three walks. Colin Hynek tripled off the wall in the fourth and reached safely in all five plate appearances, tallying a triple, double and three walks.
A seven-run fifth turned the game into a rout, capped by Nicholson’s two-run shot to left. Four Tar Heels made their collegiate debuts, including pitchers Jake Cackovic and Riley Leatherman, who each worked one inning and combined for three strikeouts while allowing just one baserunner.
Jason DeCaro (3-0) earned the win, allowing three runs — two earned — on nine hits with five strikeouts.
Game 2 - UNC 12, Lemoyne 2 (7 innings)
Preseason All-American Ryan Lynch picked up his first win of the season as North Carolina cruised past Le Moyne 12-1 in seven innings on Saturday.
Lynch worked six innings, allowing one run with six strikeouts before veteran right-hander Matthew Matthijs closed it out in the seventh, ending the game with a strikeout.
Carolina’s offense started slower than in Friday’s opener, and the Dolphins struck first. But a seven-run fourth inning blew it open. RBIs from Nicholson, Perry Hargett and Ben Schaffner put the Tar Heels on top before Anthony Paulsen crushed a three-run homer to right-center for an 8-1 lead, UNC’s biggest single-inning output this season.
Schaffner added a solo shot down the right-field line in the sixth, his second homer of the year. An RBI single from Macon Winslow and a wild pitch that scored Paulsen pushed the margin to 12-1, ending the game via run rule.
Game 3 - UNC 21, Le Moyne 1 (7 innings)
The Tar Heels completed a historic weekend with a 21-1 run-rule win in seven innings Sunday. The 20-run margin was their largest since a 20-0 win over Virginia Tech in 2017, and their 21 runs were their most in a game since 2021.
UNC seized control immediately with nine runs in the first, its highest-scoring inning of the season. Hynek opened the floodgates with a bases-clearing double, followed by a two-run homer from Nicholson and a three-run double from Paulsen.
The Tar Heels added three more runs in the third, then Hynek launched a two-run shot in the fourth. Nunez’s first career hit was one he will remember: a laser grand slam to left in the sixth, UNC’s first pinch-hit grand slam since 2008.
Right-hander Folger Boaz earned the win, allowing one run on five hits over five innings with six strikeouts before Tom Chmielewski and Kyle Percival closed it out with scoreless frames, with Chmielewski striking out three.
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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC baseball: Tar Heels dominate Le Moyne in sweep