Dunbar blasts Tar Heel baseball past Ospreys

Korey Dunbar stepped to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded Saturday and began his batter’s box routine with North Carolina (7-3) trailing North Florida 1-0.

Between each pitch, the sophomore catcher twirled his bat in his hand, pausing briefly to extend his bat toward the pitcher’s mound, as if to dare North Florida (4-6) pitcher Evan Incinelli to throw the ninth pitch of his at-bat by him.

Dunbar dug his spikes into the batter’s box, expecting a slider.

He got a fastball and sent it off the brick facade of UNC’s scoreboard in left-center field for a go-ahead grand slam that would be the difference in UNC’s 5-1 win Saturday.

The grand slam, which followed Dunbar’s go-ahead two-run homer in Friday’s win, gave the Tar Heels’ struggling offense a boost that it desperately needed to sweep the Ospreys in this weekend’s three-game series.

“It feels great getting us going and starting to spark something,” Dunbar said after Friday’s game, which was his first start after missing the season’s first six games with mononucleosis.

“Our guys are tough. We’ve all got a lot of grit on the team, so I think being back helps, but I still think they had it in them, and it’s just a matter of time.”

Dunbar wouldn’t have to wait long to see his teammates pick him up. On Sunday, the Tar Heels’ five-run two-out rally in the bottom of the sixth propelled the team to an 8-5 win. Dunbar, who went 0-for-3 Sunday with a walk, finished his first series behind the plate 3-for-10 with two home runs and six RBIs.

By Sunday he had crept up from No. 7 to No. 5 in the lineup, offering protection for the middle of UNC’s lineup — Landon Lassiter, Skye Bolt and Michael Russell — who have opened the year a combined 17-for-93.

“It’s the toughest part of this game is failing offensively, and then it just kind of builds,” said coach Mike Fox, who won his 700th game at UNC Saturday. “You’ve got to have that kind of release valve that you can let some air out. The more you fail, and the more you go 0-for-3, the worse it gets. It’s hard to deal with, hard to coach.”

Dunbar’s strong series comes after a freshman season that didn’t go as well as he would’ve hoped in 2013.

Dunbar, who started just 14 of UNC’s 71 games at catcher, hitting .159 with three RBIs last season, was named the West Virginia high school player of the year in 2012 by Perfect Game USA, a baseball scouting organization.

“Last year I was pressing a lot as a freshman, which you can say is pretty normal,” Dunbar said. “This year I’ve just settled in and been myself and just got back to where I used to be. I’m just kind of relaxed and really calm up there, so I’ve slowed the game down.”

After taking positive steps this summer and fall, Dunbar’s case of mono limited the number of live at-bats he could get before the regular season. He showed little rust, surpassing his 2013 RBI total with eight RBIs in his first four games.

Lassiter, who drove in the go-ahead runs in Sunday’s win with a two-RBI single, said Dunbar came to UNC this season as a different player.

“He had a great summer in the Coastal Plain League,” Lassiter said. “In the fall you could just tell his presence was just completely different this year.”

Just like the fastball he belted for a grand slam, Dunbar emerging to lead UNC offensively is a bit unexpected, but with runs at a premium early this season, the Tar Heels will take it.

sports@dailytarheel.com