Dalatri's injury could have impact on UNC baseball's starting rotation going forward

North Carolina coach Mike Fox said he had hoped to start Cooper Criswell (6-2, 2.72 ERA) on Monday, even if he had to pitch him for one inning on Saturday in an emergency situation.

That emergency situation did come up. Late in Saturday's baseball game, UNC was running out of pitchers and Oregon State had the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning. So Fox inserted Criswell, one of UNC's hottest starting pitchers. Criswell got UNC out of the jam and ended up saving the game.

But it came at a cost.

Criswell pitched longer than expected. He went 2 1/3 innings, prevented him from being Monday's starting pitcher on such short rest.

"Now that he's thrown 34, that's probably not going to be the case," Fox said Saturday of Criswell starting on Monday.

UNC was forced to go to its bullpen early on Saturday after starting pitcher Luca Dalatri sustained an injury in the first inning. Fox said Dalatri, who suffered from elbow soreness earlier in the year, didn't feel like he had anything on his pitches. The Tar Heels had to cycle through five more pitchers, including Criswell, and got the win.

"If anything is wrong with Luca Dalatri, we won't pitch him for the rest of the season," Fox said. "That's for sure."

The question will undoubtedly be who the Tar Heels will go with moving forward if Dalatri can't go. Since the start of the ACC tournament, only Dalatri and Criswell have started more than once. Both pitchers had been on the top of their games. UNC had won six consecutive games since its last win in the ACC tournament.

Criswell did not seem worried, though.

"I feel like our team, that's how we are," Criswell said. "When one guy goes down, the next guy steps up. That's how we've been all year, and we just pick each other up."

When asked Saturday what he might do, especially if Delatri is out for an extended period of time, Fox said he wasn't sure yet.

"We'll figure it out," Fox said. "We just knew how important it was to get Game 1."

On Sunday, Fox said Austin Bergner (7-2, 4.28 ERA) is the probable starter for Monday's game against Mississippi State. He last started in the Regional Round against Houston on June 3. He went 5 2/3 innings, giving up three earned runs, two unearned and eight hits. He was credited with the win.

UNC will play Mississippi State (38-27) on Monday at 7 p.m.

This story was originally published June 17, 2018 at 11:15 AM with the headline "Dalatri's injury could have impact on UNC baseball's starting rotation going forward."