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North Carolina Tar Heels pitchers Folger Boaz , Olin Johnson, and Camron Seagraves combined to throw the first no-hitter for the program since 1999 in an 11-1 victory over Gardner-Webb on Tuesday night. The lone run for the Bulldogs came in the second inning thanks to a pair of errors and a wild pitch. But while the no hitter itself is impressive, it’s what happened to UNC just one week prior that makes the feat incredible.
In a March 23 game against ACC foe Boston College, Tar Heels ace Aidan Haugh was absolutely shoving. Haugh, a senior, has a 1.69 ERA across seven starts this season and he showed exactly why. Haugh struck out 11, walked just one and threw a no-hitter in a 10-0 win over Boston College in 7 innings…almost.
At least, Haugh and his teammates thought he threw a no-hitter.
North Carolina Pitcher Loses No-Hitter On Unfortunate Technicality To End Game
But sometimes baseball rules can be dumb (shoutout our friends at Jomboy Media), and that’s exactly what happened to Haugh and the Heels. On his 96th and final pitch of the game, Haugh threw a fastball to Noah Wang of BC. Wang lined the ball to the right side of the infield and before he could even take off running, the umpire called him out.
Game over. No-hitter complete, right? At least, that’s what Haugh and his teammates thought as they all began celebrated. And they were half right. The game was over. But so was Haugh’s no-hitter. See, the ball hit a base runner, making it base-runner interference. This meant that the runner was called out and the game was in fact over.
Wang did not reach base. But, by rule, he is awarded a hit on the play while the runner was called out. Now, to be fair, it did appear the ball would have been a hit had it not been for base runner. But that’s not what happened. Instead, Haugh loses a once-in-a-lifetime moment because of a brutal technicality.