DURHAM — After an unexpected loss that eliminated the North Carolina baseball team from contention in the ACC Championship, many questions linger about the team moving forward.
Against Pittsburgh, the lowest seed in this week's ACC Championship, the top seeded Tar Heels disappointed in a 5-4 loss. Coughing up the lead in the seventh inning was the last thing the team wanted to see at this point in the season.
“You’ve got to give them credit” head coach Mike Fox said. “They stepped up there and got a base hit after a couple walks, and we didn’t.”
Headed into postseason play, North Carolina had risen all the way to the top five in the country. But the team didn't look like itself on Wednesday night, only recording five hits, committing two errors and leaving nine runners on base.
After leading through the first six innings, UNC pitcher Brett Daniels gave up the lead on a double and fielder's choice, bringing in two runners he inherited from Josh Hiatt earlier that inning. Hiatt had held things together for much of his relief outing, keeping bases loaded opportunities from turning into more runs. But eventually the team broke through, and UNC never quite recovered after that.
In the eighth inning, North Carolina went down in just three batters. After holding the Panthers scoreless, the team had one last chance in the ninth, but a nice play by the warning track closed out the game. Mistakes made in the game turned out to be costly, especially once the Tar Heels couldn't claw back into it.
“We don’t make a couple plays in the outfield, we don’t field a bunt,” Fox said. “There’s five or six things to take away from our team and we can’t have that.”
It was an unforeseen early exit from the conference tournament. Earlier this year, the Panthers were outscored 32-5 in a weekend series in Chapel Hill, a performance Pittsburgh head coach Joe Jordano called "one of the most disappointing weekends" the team had all season.
But the team got its revenge, spoiling UNC's chances of returning to its second straight ACC Championship final, while also creating doubt about its potential into the upcoming NCAA tournament. While Pittsburgh made highlight catches in the outfield, turned double plays and used 10 hits to its advantage, North Carolina lost, at least momentarily, whatever it has had the second half of the season.
