WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – William & Mary baseball (26-18, 9-9 CAA) travels to Chapel Hill, N.C., to take on No. 7 North Carolina (33-11, 17-7 ACC).
Coming off of a loss to Virginia Tech, the Tar Heels enter the week at 33-11, but will face Charlotte on Tuesday, April 30 to close out their April schedule.
The teams will open the month of May with a Wednesday evening matchup at 6 p.m. at Boshamer Stadium.
Last Time Out
The Tribe fell to No. 24 UNCW in their CAA weekend series at home, 2-1.
Zack Potts stunned on the mound in the Tribe's Saturday victory, matching his season-high 7.0 innings of one-run ball. He fanned six and allowed just one walk and five hits in the outing, getting tabbed a top-100 pitcher of the weekend by D1Baseball.
Barely edged in a 5-4 Friday loss,
Nate Knowles and
Mark Hindy combined for a season high 16 strikeouts, topping the previous 15-strikeout tally. Knowles' nine over 5.0 innings of work was a career high and marked the first nine-plus strikeout game by a W&M pitcher since May 2013. Hindy's seven was just one punchout shy of his career-high eight.
Despite
Joe Delossantos' team-leading 11
th home run, a homer from
Luca Trigiani and
Ben Parker's fourth triple, the Tribe fell in a lopsided game on Sunday to drop just its second CAA series.
Ranked Wins
North Carolina is the Tribe's fourth consensus top-17 nationally ranked opponent and fifth opponent appearing in the national polls as high as No. 7 by Baseball America.
Most recently, the Tribe took a game from No. 24 (Perfect Game) UNCW in a CAA weekend series.
Earlier this season, W&M took down No. 6 (Baseball America) Duke, 4-2, in Durham, N.C., for the highest-ranked victory in program history.
With a Saturday win over UNCW, the Tribe posted a pair of wins over top-25 opponents in a single season for the fourth time in program history.
Continuing the ACCtion
The Tribe will take on its fourth ACC opponent of the season and its third ranked ACC team. Early in the season the Tribe dropped a two-run game to Boston College at home before facing No. 15 Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., and falling in a 6-2 game.
The record-ranked victory in the midweek matchup at No. 6 Duke was the Tribe's most recent Atlantic Coast opponent.
National Numbers
Zack Potts (2.06) and
Nate Knowles (2.08) lead the CAA in ERA, each allowing just 13 earned runs in over 56 innings of work. The pair rank 12
th and 13
th in the nation in the statistic, respectively.
Also ranking nationally, Knowles' impressive 5.27 hits per nine innings is the sixth-best mark in NCAA Division I while his 13.26 strikeouts per nine innings is No. 19.
The team's 278 walks is the fifth-best in the country, trailing the national leader South Carolina's 299.
As a team, the Tribe rank in the top 30 with 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings (No. 21), 85 HBP (No. 23), 4.40 ERA (26), 8.31 hits per nine innings (No. 28), 2.49 strikeout-to-walk ratio (No. 29) and 1.38 WHIP (No. 30).
Program Leaderboards
The Tribe are creeping up on multiple program-record statistics.
Last season, W&M set a pair of program single-season records in walks (299) and HBPs (114). This year, the Tribe have amassed 278 bases on balls and counting, trailing the program record by just 21 for the second-most in W&M history. With 85 HBPs, the Tribe overtook the 2019 Tribe for fifth-most in a season.
The Tribe's pitching staff combined to fan 12 Seahawks in the game for the fifth-highest season total of 445. Adding 36 strikeouts over the weekend, the 2024 staff trails the program-record mark by just 30 – 475 in 2004.
Also notable, the offense has combined for 49 home runs, a mark which has only been achieved eight other times in program history, and most recently in 2014 (55).
Milestone Meter
Ben Parker has drawn a team-high 39 walks on the year. Continuing to make noise in his first season in the Green & Gold, the outfielder's mark has only been surpassed eight times in program history. The single-season record was set by Brian Rodgers' 54 walks in 1999.
Carter Lovasz earned his fourth save of the year for his 16
th career save. The righty continues to climb toward the program-record 18, a career mark achieved by Joseph Gaouette in 2013-16.
With a career-high nine strikeouts against UNCW, Knowles raised his single-season-best mark to 83 on the season. His 70 led the team a season ago, which was the most since Nick Raquet's in 2017. Besting his career numbers from his sophomore campaign a weekend ago, Knowles is just three punchouts from entering the single-season leaderboard at 16, currently held by Whitt Farr's 86 in 2000.
The Series
In a series which stretches back to the first decade of W&M baseball, the Tribe first faced North Carolina in April 1907. Since then, the teams have met 16 total times, the Tribe trail 14-2 in the all-time series.
The teams have split the most recent meetings, the latest coming in 2016, a 17-2 Tar Heels victory. Before that, the Tribe earned a 3-0 victory in 2010.
This is only the second time in series history that the teams will compete in May. The other was in the 1983 Chapel Hill Regional, the Tribe's first NCAA postseason appearance. Including the regional at host North Carolina, every game in the series has been played away for the Tribe, all but one in Chapel Hill (the other in Cary, N.C.).
Up Next
The Tribe will continue its road trip into the weekend, playing another North Carolina team in CAA foe Elon on Friday-Sunday, May 3-5.
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