Head coach Scott Forbes walked off the field in the top of the sixth inning.
UNC was down by two with runners on first and second. First-year pitcher Walker McDuffie forced Stanford's Jimmy Nati down to his last strike with two outs. McDuffie’s pitch painted the outside corner, the exact same place that was called a strike before. Ball two.
On the next pitch Nati chipped a fly ball into shallow right field, sending another run home for Stanford and extending the team's lead to three. Forbes came out of the dugout for the mound visit. After arguing the non-strike call, Forbes was ejected.
“I felt like in that moment right there, like 'OK, I’m going to go to bat for our guys,’ and I thought Duffie made a really, really good pitch and the inning would've been over,” Forbes said. “And I would do it again.”
The Tar Heels suddenly found themselves without their head coach, down three and still not out of the inning. All of it led to North Carolina's first series loss after a 7-0 defeat on Sunday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium. A lack of offensive firepower held the Tar Heels scoreless for the first time all season and critical defensive mistakes allowed the Cardinal to pile on runs in the middle innings. North Carolina had several mistakes in all facets leading to the below average performance.
But Forbes made it clear the umpires were not the reason the Tar Heels lost. It simply was added onto the list of things UNC didn't execute.
“You have to play well, you have to make plays, you have to have good at-bats or runners in scoring position,” Forbes said. “And if you look at our season we’ve done that, we just didn’t do it two out of three games against a really good team.”
Sunday's loss marks the first time the Diamond Heels were left scoreless this season and the first time they were shutout at home since 2020. UNC also suffered 14 strikeouts — the most this season — due to a lack of place discipline.
UNC also struggled to convert, leaving eight runners stranded on base.
