North Carolina
Baseball Pulls Away From Wagner With Six-Run Sixth – University of North Carolina Athletics
Freshman Folger Boaz (1-0) earned the victory while making his Tar Heel debut, surrendering one run with five strikeouts against one walk in 5.0 innings pitched. Senior Matt Poston struck out a pair on one inning of relief before Aidan Haugh struck out the side in the ninth to close the game.
UNC (1-0) collected 11 hits, seven off the bats of four newcomers. Georgia transfer Parks Harber went 3-for-4 with an RBI, and graduate transfer Anthony Donofrio was 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Freshmen Gavin Gallaher and Luke Stevenson recorded their first hits, donning Carolina Blue.
Colby Wilkerson, who collected two hits and a pair of RBIs, ignited the sixth inning with a double inside the right field line, which plated Stevenson and Gallaher, pushing the Tar Heels to a four-run lead. Vance Honeycutt followed with a two-run homer.
Donofrio tripled to center field to bring home Harber in the sixth before scoring on a fielding error to cap the outburst.
Carolina tacked on an additional run in the seventh.
Wagner starter Frankie Wright (0-1) took the loss after he allowed three runs in five innings pitched.
The series resumes Saturday, Feb. 17, at noon inside Boshamer Stadium, with UNC senior right-hander Ben Peterson slated to face off against Wagner junior right-hander Connor Hayden.
NOTABLES:
• Boaz became the first Tar Heel to make his Carolina debut as the opening-day starting pitcher since Ryan Snare in 1998.
• Honeycutt homered on opening day for the second time in his career. He hit two home runs as a freshman against Seton Hall in the first game of the 2022 season. He hit his 38th career home run and is two home runs shy of becoming the fourth member of UNC’s career 40-40 club.
• Honeycutt made his third consecutive opening-day start, while Wilkerson and Casey Cook made their second straight.
• Eight players made their Tar Heel debuts: Boaz, Eliot Dix, Donofrio, Gallaher, Harber, Aidan Haugh, Parker Haskin, and Stevenson.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
• Cook scored the game’s first run on a base hit to left field by Donofrio in the bottom of the first. Jackson Van De Brake drove home the second run of the game with a sacrifice fly in the inning (UNC, 2-0).
• Connor Roche plated Xavier Baker in the top of the fifth with a base hit to right field (UNC, 2-1).
• Honeycutt scored on a sac fly by Harber in the bottom of the fifth inning (UNC, 3-1).
• Gallaher and Stevenson scored on a double to right field by Wilkerson in the sixth inning (UNC, 5-1).
• Wilkerson scored on Honeycutt’s sixth-inning two-run homer (UNC, 7-1).
• Donofrio tripled to center field, scoring Harber from first base (UNC, 8-1).
• Donofrio scored on a fielding error for the Tar Heels’ final run of the sixth inning (UNC, 9-1).
• Roche homered for the Seahawks in the seventh (UNC, 9-2).
• After being hit by a pitch and stealing second, Honeycutt scored on a fielding error in the eighth inning (UNC, 10-2).
• Wagner’s David Melfi homered in the top half of the eighth inning to score the game’s final run (UNC, 10-3).
North Carolina
North Carolina father-to-be saved by quick-thinking pregnant wife after suffering sudden heart attack
A North Carolina man who unknowingly lived with a rare heart condition was saved by his pregnant wife after he suddenly went into cardiac arrest while lounging in bed.
Brandon Whitfield, 39, was already preparing for one drastic lifestyle change when his wife, Angela, became pregnant last spring.
Then, he suffered an unexpected heart attack when she was just nine weeks along.
“I was eating carrot cake in bed watching the hockey playoffs. And mid-conversation, I just started to slump over,” Brandon recounted to WSOC-TV.
Angela didn’t think anything of it for a few seconds, figuring Brandon might just be groggy or joking, but “jumped into action” when she realized “this was an emergency.”
Thankfully, Angela has worked as a physician assistant for more than a decade. She knew what to do instantly and, after calling 911, started to perform CPR on her prone husband.
Angela was shaken in the moments after, though, as she started to rationalize what she’d just had to do.
“You absolutely never ever think you are going to have to do CPR on your spouse,” she told the outlet.
“I thought I may be a widow,” she added.
Brandon was rushed to a nearby Novant Health medical center and, to his horror, diagnosed with a rare heart condition.
“Just because you’re young and you’re fit and you’re relatively healthy doesn’t mean that heart disease can’t happen to you,” Brandon told the outlet.
Brandon was quick to laud his wife with praise.
“It was nothing short of a miracle. Everything lined up for her to be there. It was not my time,” he said.
In the wake of his shocking diagnosis, Brandon had to adopt a Mediterranean diet and is trying to be “more mindful” about what he eats — which means no more carrot cake.
After his brush with death, the dad-to-be implored others who may be taking their lives for granted to make sure they don’t leave anything unsaid, just in case their final days are nearer than they think.
“If you can do something today, do it today. If you can tell your family you love them, do it,” he said.
It’s Duke basketball against N.C. State at the Lenovo Center on Monday, March 2.
The top-ranked Blue Devils (27-2, 15-1 ACC) and head coach Jon Scheyer are set to take on the Wolfpack (19-10, 10-6) and first year head coach Will Wade at 7 p.m. on ESPN in Raleigh.
Duke is coming off its sixth-straight win, a 77-51 rout over Virginia at Cameron Indoor Stadium. N.C. State, which has lost four of its last five, is coming off a 96-90 road loss in overtime to Notre Dame. The Blue Devils sit atop conference standings while the Wolfpack rank sixth in the league.
The Blue Devils own the all-time series against the Wolfpack 83-52 and sit at 27-27 on the road at the Lenovo Center. Duke has won six out of its last four contests against N.C. State.
Here’s how to buy tickets for Duke basketball vs. N.C. State:
Duke basketball tickets vs NC State
Duke has established a ticket waitlist program for men’s basketball games. Fans can register for the waitlist at GoDuke.com. Those on the waiting list may have the opportunity to purchase tickets, when and if tickets become available. Iron Dukes members have the first opportunity to purchase available tickets.
As for the secondary market, ticket prices for Duke’s game vs. N.C. State start at $72 on StubHub and go upwards of $712. On VividSeats, tickets range from $62-$1,156 while ranging from $63-$432 on Ticketmaster.
To see a full list of ticket prices, visit StubHub.
What time is Duke vs NC State?
Date: Monday, March 2
Time: 7 p.m. ET
The Duke basketball game vs. N.C. State game tips off at 7 p.m. ET from the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Where to watch Duke vs NC State
TV Channel: ESPN
Stream: Fubo
The Duke vs. N.C. State game will air on ESPN and can be streamed on Fubo, which offers a free trial to new subscribers.
Anna Snyder covers Duke for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at asnyder@usatodayco.com or follow her @annaesnydr on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The North Carolina Tar Heels host the Virginia Tech Hokies on Saturday night at the Dean E. Smith Center in a monumental game for head coach Hubert Davis and his team. Here are quotes from this week that carry weight into this contest.
Seth Trimble’s Aggressive Mindset
- “The thing that I loved about him was he was thinking attack. He wasn’t coming off looking to pass,” Davis said. “One of the things that I’ve told him is when you come off a ball screen, you’re 100% thinking score, and then let the defense dictate whether you make a pass or you go to the basket. And Seth’s ability to be able to get downhill, he was able to score, draw fouls, just a huge difference maker for us.”
- “And I feel like now that Caleb [Wilson] has been out, he’s definitely been more of the go-to guy, and he’s had a lot more opportunities,” Henri Veesaar said. “I feel like he flipped a switch in the second half of Syracuse and that kind of just carried over, because he started being more aggressive, getting downhill, and that carried over into the next game.”
- “The coaches have been on me,” Trimble said. “I know I said it; I’ve said this over and over again, but they’ve been on me just to go and just finish, you know, coming off the ball screen, go, look to score, you know, don’t look to pass. Don’t look to make a play. Go to score. And then things are going to happen from that. And then I’m going to be able to kick out, going to be able to hit Henri [Veesaar].”
Defensive Fortitude
- “We were ready – just being ready on the defensive end and making them score over us,” Veesaar said. “I feel like on the defensive end most of the time, most of the games, we control the way we play, and as long as we don’t make any [mistakes]…today we were talking, communicating the whole game. So that was really good.”
- “It was a huge point to try and slow down Mikel [Brown Jr.] and [Ryan] Conwell,” Trimble said. “They’re two incredible guards, two of the best guards in the ACC. So, if you can shut them down, you can put yourself in a good position to win. Now, we didn’t necessarily shut them down, obviously, but efficiency wise, they didn’t have the best game, and it made it difficult. So, I think we did a good job.”
- “[With] so many gifted guys that can score in many different areas, one of the things that we wanted to do is just make every catch, make every move, make every shot difficult,” Davis continued. “And I just felt like throughout the game, they got worn down and tired. And I think that’s why a lot of their threes hit front rim or air ball, because of the fatigue.”
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