In what was a cloudy Sunday at Boshamer Stadium, the sun came out at the perfect moment for the No. 15 North Carolina baseball team when its bats came alive.
With a mixture of timely hits and patience at the plate, North Carolina was able to beat Duke, 16-6, and sweep the Blue Devils for the second time in the last four years.
“We've got to credit our guys for coming back,” head coach Mike Fox said. “It looked like in every frame they scored, we came back in the bottom and answered. That is a sign of a good team.”
The Tar Heels (22-7, 7-5 ACC) scored an unconventional eight runs in the seventh inning, more than the Blue Devils scored in an entire game all weekend. Although North Carolina had a two-run lead going into the frame, the inning proved to be the nail in the coffin for the Blue Devils.
All nine Tar Heels came up to the plate in that seventh inning. Four UNC batters walked, one was hit by a pitch and three got hits. Duke had to use four different pitchers. All told, the inning lasted over an hour.
“That was crazy,” first-year designated hitter Aaron Sabato said. “The longest inning I have probably ever played in baseball. We just strung together good at-bats. I think that is a big notch to our team how we didn’t get out of our zone of, OK, we put up a lot of runs, let's just stop now.”
Patience at the plate, something the UNC team emphasizes, was a factor in the explosive inning.
“It is a big thing we talk about as an offense,” junior third baseman Ashton McGee said. “Just have to be patient and look for your pitch. If you don’t get it, you have to get on base and try to help the team.”
Before the huge inning for the Tar Heels, they had to fight the Duke offense in the beginning of the game. Duke scored in the top of three different innings, but each time North Carolina quickly responded with runs of its own.
