UNC baseball looks past the pressure to find hitting success

Combining for seven hits in the first two games of the series against Notre Dame, the North Carolina baseball team was frozen at the plate.

The problem was the Tar Heels cared too much.

“I think we’re just putting too much pressure on ourselves right now trying to get huge hits instead of maybe trying to get on base,” Cody Roberts said.

There wasn’t much Coach Mike Fox could do.

“I can tell a kid to relax, but I mean, it’s them and the box,” Fox said. “They’ve got to breathe. They’ve got to try to have a good at bat.”

You wouldn’t know hitting had been an issue with the way North Carolina played Monday, though. In the final game of the series, UNC broke its hitting funk to claim an 8-1 victory over the Fighting Irish. With the rubber match, the Tar Heels took the series.

North Carolina’s bid in the ACC Tournament is still up in the air, but the win Monday bolstered UNC’s chances at reaching the conference tournament and ultimately the NCAA Tournament.

The Tar Heels struck right away to seal the Monday win. Recording three two-run doubles and an RBI single in the second inning, North Carolina scored seven runs to put away the Fighting Irish early.

Kyle Datres, who went 3-for-4 on Monday with a home run, said going into the game, the team eased up on pressure and focused having fun.

“Everyone’s just trying to go out and have fun and play the game like we have our whole lives instead of being so tense, like, you’ve got to get a hit, you’ve got to get a hit,” Datres said.

With the change in mentality, the Tar Heels had the freedom to connect with the bat, and it showed.

A.J. Bogucki, who pitched for five innings Monday in relief, said the looseness carried over to the defensive end.

“I mean, you go out there and the game’s 8-0, it’s pretty hard to not be relaxed,” he said.

Datres said it wasn’t Fox who told the team to relax on Monday.

“He let it go and put it in the hands of the players,” Datres. “It’s what some of the upperclassmen said.

“They just said, ‘go out and have fun and play like you always have.’”

Fox said he doesn’t typically share rankings with the team since he doesn’t want to put any added pressure on them. But he told players in an email Sunday they still were capable of qualifying for the ACC Tournament and ultimately returning to the NCAA Tournament, but there was still work to do.

With tournament play an uncertainty, North Carolina needs every win —and every hit— it can muster. It’s not easy to forget that.

But somehow, Monday night, the Tar Heels ignored those stakes.

“I think that’s been the biggest thing is not think about our last game, not think about the future, not think about the standings,” Bogucki said.

“Just play today and play as hard as you can today, and what happens, happens.”

@BlakeR_95

sports@dailytarheel.com