The Tar Heels entered the series with spots in the ACC and NCAA tournaments in their reach, but a late-season sweep at home would be detrimental — making Sunday’s game the most important to date.
And behind a go-ahead RBI by freshman Tyler Ramirez in the seventh inning, UNC seized a monumental 5-4 win to allow the team to keep dreaming for another week.
“That Sunday game, you want to bounce back after two losses, prove yourself a little bit and have the right answer to failure,” said senior Parks Jordan afterward. “It’s only one game, but it still means a lot for our team going forward into this next week.”
The Tar Heels will begin another three-game series tonight in Coral Gables, Fla., against No. 13 Miami with the same implication in play — win at least one game to make that postseason dream an almost sure reality.
The Hurricanes are one of the hottest teams in the country — carrying a 21-2 record since the beginning of April and a 22-5 conference record that has them projected as the No. 1 seed in next week’s ACC tournament.
Wins against FSU and Virginia verify UNC’s ability to compete with the top teams in the country. But lapses of concentration have plagued the team all season and are why it’s fighting for its 13th-straight NCAA tournament birth.
Senior Tom Zengel said eliminating such infectious behavior is vital to the team having success against Miami and in the ACC tournament.
“We’ve just got to come out and play like every game’s a championship game,” Zengel said. “Too many times, we come out and don’t really get into the game or feel like we’re all ready until the fifth or sixth inning, and I think we’ve just got to make sure we come out ready to play every day.
