Box Score | Bracket
 
DURHAM, N.C. (theACC.com) – Following a brutal closing week to the regular season, North Carolina relished the chance to make a fresh start in the 2023 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Championship.
 
The seventh-seeded Tar Heels jumped on No. 11 seed Georgia Tech with three runs in their first at-bat and capped their day with four more in the bottom of the eight en route to an 11-5 win Tuesday afternoon at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
 
UNC (34-21), which snapped a four-game losing streak, faces No. 2 seed Virginia on Thursday at 3 p.m. with a chance to advance to Saturday’s tournament semifinal with a win. Georgia Tech (30-26) faces the Cavaliers in Wednesday’s 3 p.m. game.
 
Tar Heel junior Patrick Alvarez went 3-for-5 and drove in three runs, while Mac Horvath delivered his 22nd home run of the season – a towering shot to left field that covered 380 feet and left the park at 109 velocity – to lead off UNC’s final scoring flurry in the eighth.
 
Tomas Frick also finished 3-for-5 with two RBI, and Jackson Van De Brake drove in a pair of runs for the Tar Heels, who piled up 15 hits as they bounced back from last week’s non-conference loss to Coastal Carolina and a three-game sweep at the hands of Clemson.
 
Ben Peterson (2-0), who came on in the fifth inning in relief of starter Max Carlson, picked up the win on the mound for UNC, and Matt Poston pitched the final 2.1 innings to earn his fifth save. Ben King (6-2) took the loss on the mound for the Yellow Jackets.
 
Jake DeLeo was one of five Georgia Tech players to collect two hits and led the Yellow Jackets with three RBI. Tech first baseman John Gielser hit his eighth home run of the season in the top of the sixth.
 
The Tar Heels played with ACC Defensive Player of the Year and 2022 ACC Baseball Championship MVP Vance Honeycutt, who missed his fifth consecutive game with a lower-body injury.