UNC Baseball: April 21-23 Weekend Recap

Despite taking a series loss last weekend, North Carolina baseball had mostly been playing well in recent weeks. They had gone 14-7 in their last 21 games, and picked up a couple ACC series victories.

However over the weekend, they welcomed a good and likely NCAA Tournament team in Boston College to the Bosh. That did not go as well.

Friday: Boston College 9, North Carolina 8 - 10 innings

Despite scoring six first run innings, UNC couldn’t hang on for a win as BC got them in a wild extra innings game in the opener.

While the Eagles got Carolina starter Max Carlson for two runs in the top of the first, UNC answered with six runs in the bottom half of the inning, including home runs from Vance Honeycutt and Alberto Osuna. However, BC would eventually get back into the game. They scored three runs in the third and knocked Carlson out of the game in the process. The Eagles’ comeback was completed when they evened things up in the fifth.

The game stayed tied at six for a while before things started to get crazy in the late innings. Cameron Leary put BC ahead with a homer in the top of the ninth, but Jackson Van De Brake tied things up with an RBI single in the bottom half of the inning. UNC ended up stranding two runners in the ninth, which ended up coming back to haunt them.

In the top of the 10th, Boston College pinch hitter Sam McNulty drove home two runs with a two-out RBI single. Again down to the last three outs, UNC mounted another comeback when Van De Brake picked up another RBI hit. However, the Tar Heels could only picked up one of the two runs needed to keep the game alive, as they left two on base in the 10th.

In total, UNC picked up 16 hits and three walks on the day, but they just did slightly too little with those runners to come away with the win.

Saturday: Boston College 9, North Carolina 4

After a really solid outing from starter Connor Bovair, UNC and the bullpen couldn’t hang on, allowing eight late runs to doom them to a series loss.

BC started the game with a run in the first inning, but after that Bovair settled into a groove, retiring all but one of the next 13 batters he faced. In that time, the Heels were able to take the lead thanks to RBI from Van De Brake and Tomas Frick.

Bovair had still just allowed one run through seven innings, and he came back out for the eighth. After getting the first out of the inning, he hit a batter with a pitch, at which point Carolina went to the bullpen. That’s when things started to go haywire. In total, UNC would use four relievers over the course of the eighth, as BC scored four runs to take the lead.

The Eagles then added four more runs in the ninth to take a commanding lead. The Heels scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth, but it was too little, too late.

Sunday: Boston College 6, North Carolina 2

The bullpen also couldn’t hold onto a slim lead in Sunday’s game, dooming Carolina to a sweep at the hands of the Eagles.

While Boston College had opened the scoring in the top of the first, UNC eventually took a lead when Hunter Stokely drove home two runs with a single in the fourth inning. However, BC struck back and tied the game in the fifth, knocking out Heels’ starter Jake Knapp. They then scored four total runs off the bullpen in the seventh and eighth innings, taking a solid lead and leaving Carolina in the dust.

UNC will try to regroup from the loss when they take on UNC Wilmington tonight. After that, they’re set to hit the road this weekend to take on Virginia Tech.