It was absolutely frustrating to see the white hot UNC baseball team get just absolutely curb stomped by Coastal Carolina last week. If the two are on any sort of collision course, it’s tough to say that matchup will have a huge impact on a future meeting because of the way that teams treat these one-off mid week matchup, but there’s little doubt the way they played against one of the top teams in the country left a bad taste in Carolina’s mouth.
Traditionally, when UNC hits the weekend of final exams,
they’ve taken the full time off so they can fully concentrate on the tests. A lot of that, of course, has to do with the fact that weekends this time of year are set for conference matchups all around, so it’s tough to even get a game in on a Sunday when exams are paused. This year, however, a familiar foe also had an off-weekend scheduled, and in something you’ll likely only see in College Baseball because of the way this sport is, on Sunday in Boshamer you had the Tar Heels stepping up against Duke for the fourth time in a week.
It basically was a batting practice for Carolina.
Duke is not having a great year but managed to take a game against Carolina the previous weekend. The Tar Heels started getting their revenge on Sunday by run-ruling Duke 22-5. Unfortunately for Duke, this was the Tar Heels’ first game since that pantsing by Coastal Carolina, so they took out their frustration on the Blue Devils.
Another run-rule win for Carolina—this time 13-0 in seven innings—and a bunch of positives appear all up and down the box score. Jason DeCaro pitched three strong innings, only giving up two hits, struck out four, and only walked one. On the Tar Heel hitting side, every player that started got on base in some form or fashion. Only Tyler Howe failed to get a hit but he did score a run thanks to drawing a walk, and the Tar Heels did it just getting bits and pieces everywhere.
It was a satisfying result for the fans that came out on a beautiful Sunday in Boshamer, and it sets up the last five home games ahead for the Tar Heels. Tomorrow night, they’ll take on Winthrop in the mid week matchup before welcoming Pittsburgh for the last regular season weekend series in Chapel Hill.
Folks, the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament are just around the corner. The way this team is playing while this may be the last weekend regular season series in Chapel Hill, it definitely won’t be the last weekend the Tar Heels play in Chapel Hill.
