UNC baseball unable to capitalize early in 10-2 loss to Seminoles

The North Carolina baseball team needed a break or two if it was going to knock off No. 4 Florida State Saturday in the middle game of a three-game series.

After FSU’s ace right-hander Luke Weaver shut out the Tar Heels 7-0 Friday night, the team returned to Boshamer Stadium invigorated and eager to get the bats going against Mike Compton.

And through four innings, the Tar Heels appeared to have luck on their side only to realize it was merely a flash in the pan, as the Seminoles clinched the series with a 10-2 win.

After opening the game with a strikeout, junior Benton Moss loaded the bases with two walks and a hit batter to bring Jose Brizuela, FSU’s second-leading hitter, to the plate.

Facing a full count, Brizuela hit a sharp line drive toward third.

The frozen rope spelled disaster for the Tar Heels. But in a twist of fate, third baseman Landon Lassiter lunged to his left with cat-like reflexes, intercepted the ball and threw to second base for an inning-ending double play. Coach Mike Fox said the team dodged a major blow despite a sluggish start by Moss.

“That’s the worst Benton Moss has pitched for me since he’s walked on this campus,” Fox said. “Just the worst outing he’s had right out of the gate. Just didn’t have it. We got lucky in the first inning.”

With the first-inning crisis averted, the Tar Heels looked to break through against Compton — a task easier said than done. But after falling behind 1-0, UNC did just that.

With two outs in the fourth, freshman Tyler Ramirez squeezed a ball up the middle just out of the reach of the second baseman for a single to bring senior Parks Jordan to the plate.

Jordan lofted the second pitch he saw into left field, and it hit landed inches off the foul line to score Ramirez, as Jordan reached second on a double. Alex Raburn followed with a line drive to right to plate Jordan, and UNC seized its first lead of the series.

But the lead would be brief. After a 1-2-3 fourth, Moss opened the top of the fifth with a leadoff walk that resulted in his departure from the game. Trevor Kelley would be his replacement, and, as quickly as UNC seized the lead, it lost it. Kelley gave up three runs on four hits while only facing six batters.

Fox said the leadoff walk by Moss doomed the team by sucking the life out of the team’s momentum and allowing a disciplined FSU lineup the chance to punctuate on the mistake.

“That’s just unacceptable when you finally score in a series and you finally take the lead 2-1, and you walk the leadoff guy in the fifth inning,” Fox said. “That’s just things you can’t do, because you’re just opening that door and they take advantage of it.”

The Tar Heels were unable to muster a comeback attempt, as Compton locked in the rest of the way. He would only allow two more Tar Heels to reach base over his next four innings of work, as the Seminoles would pile on six runs in the seventh and eighth.

The loss was only UNC’s third this season by more than four runs, with one of the others coming Friday. Lassiter said that large of deficit is something the team isn’t accustomed to and the team’s eight walks were a major factor.

“Usually it doesn’t happen that much,” Lassiter said. “They hit the ball well, and I think we had a lot of walks. We can’t do that against a really good team.”

Fleeting opportunities have punished the team all season and are a major reason why the team is desperately fighting for a shot at returning to the postseason. Fox said blocking out those moments are all the team can do heading into Sunday’s critical series finale.

“There’s some things that have happened the last two days that are like, ‘Well that’s pretty typical of how things have gone for us,’” Fox said.” But we can’t think about that. We’ve got to think about tomorrow.

“We’ve got to think about tomorrow and what we can do — not what we’ve done in the past.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.