Frick Fuels Walk-Off Win Over Charlotte
Catcher's heroics, Horvath's homers help UNC to second extra-inning victory
The month of April was one to forget for North Carolina, but it was that much more for Tomas Frick.
Coming off an offseason in which he worked diligently to refine his approach at the plate, the sophomore catcher reaped the rewards of his efforts early this year, hitting .309/.367/.392 with a team-high 20 RBIs in his first 25 games. As the Tar Heels started to struggle, though, so did he. And by the end of UNC’s 5-11 April, he found himself batting .139/.269/.186 in 13 games.
Tuesday’s game against Charlotte — the Tar Heels’ first of May and their first coming out of a five-day exam break — offered Frick his first chance to put the month behind him. Not only did he take advantage of it, but he did so in dramatic fashion, hitting a walk-off double in the bottom of the 10th inning to deliver UNC a crucial 4-3 win.
Just two innings earlier, Frick had entered the game as a pinch-hitter and struck out swinging on a high 3-2 fastball from the 49ers’ Collin Kramer. The at-bat marked the latest example of the catcher expanding his strike zone, perhaps his biggest issue over the last month. But he didn’t get down on himself, and when he stepped to the plate in the 10th, he was ready and pounced on a first-pitch fastball from Kramer that he drove to left-center, scoring Reece Holbrook from first.
Following a raucous on-field celebration, Frick said the walk-off hit was his first in “a while,” at least since high school. Given his recent performance — as well as the Tar Heels’ need for wins — it couldn’t have come at a better time.
“I’ve been struggling a little bit and just been working,” he said. “My swing the past two weeks has felt better than it ever has. Just being confident myself, I think that’s the big (reason) why I was able to succeed tonight. I knew when I got back in there and had a shot to succeed, I was confident in myself that I was going to get it done.”
Frick, of course, wasn’t alone in that regard.
After watching Frick’s eighth-inning strikeout, head coach Scott Forbes could’ve easily pulled him in favor of Eric Grintz when his spot came up in the 10th, if not earlier. But Forbes stuck with Frick, and the decision paid off in a big way.
“He’s a great teammate and he’s looked really good in (batting practice),” Forbes said. “We had a live session (over the exam break) and he had a lot of at-bats where he looked good; he maybe hit one or two home runs. So I felt really good about him. We went with (Max) Riemer today because it was a right-handed pitcher and he looked good, as well. … But we know how talented (Frick) is.
“The at-bat before (in the eighth), I put my arm around him and said, ‘Hey, every now and then, we’ve got to take that walk, but you’ll get them next time.’ And sure enough, he did.”
Behind Frick’s heroics, UNC sits at 25-17 with 12 games left in the regular season. The Tar Heels still have their work cut out for them if they hope to make the NCAA Tournament. But after making a strong push last May to reach a regional, Frick and his teammates are confident they can do it again.
“We’ve been through it,” Frick said, “and once we get going through it, we know how to talk to each other and be like, ‘We’re fine. We’re going to get hot soon. Everyone just needs to relax and keep working. We’re going to get hot soon and go on a run.’
“All the losses that we’ve had have been like one-run games, really tough games. That’s just how baseball goes. You win those close games sometimes and sometimes you don’t come out on top. That’s the good thing about baseball is there’s always another day and there’s always another chance to win a ballgame. We know we’ve done it and we can do it again.”
Horvath stays hot
Despite showing signs of promise over the first six weeks of the season, Mac Horvath entered the Virginia Tech series on April 1 with a .189/.330/.311 slash line. Looking to improve those numbers, he decided to meet with assistant coach Jesse Wierzbicki the day before the series to discuss his swing, and thanks to a couple of adjustments they made then — moving Horvath’s hands a little higher and closing off his stance — the sophomore has since established himself as one of the ACC’s best hitters.
Horvath’s hot streak continued Tuesday with the first two-homer game of his UNC career. The first came in the bottom of the first, when he launched a hanging slider over the left-field wall. The third baseman then went deep again two innings later, when he crushed a no-doubter to center.
Horvath also reached on a walk and a bunt single Tuesday, bringing his slash line to .316/.409/.776 in 17 games since the start of the Virginia Tech series. In that span, he’s registered eight doubles, nine homers and 17 RBIs. Horvath said stringing together so many great at-bats has boosted his confidence, but he points to the changes he made with Wierzbicki as the primary reason for his success.
“Honestly, from the beginning (of the season), I felt like I was seeing the pitches well,” Horvath said. “Where my body was to get a swing off just wasn’t a great position, so when I was getting swings off on good pitches to hit, I just couldn’t get to them. I think I’m just getting myself in a better spot.”
Bovair bounces back
Ten days since his last appearance, when he gave up a two-out walk-off grand slam at Virginia, Connor Bovair took the mound Tuesday with one out and the go-ahead run on second in the 10th. The right-hander came out firing, striking out the first batter on three pitches. He then fell behind 2-0 to reigning Conference USA Player of the Year Austin Knight before getting the slugger to ground out to end the inning.
If the Tar Heels are going to make the postseason, they’ll have to get something from Bovair, who has shown great stuff all year. Tuesday offered hope that they just might.
“I just felt like Connor is the type of kid who is going to learn from that last one and he’s going to be ready,” Forbes said. “We worked on it, like, ‘OK, if we get in this same situation and you’ve got a base open, who cares if you walk the guy? You are trying to strike him out.’ I was really proud of him because he worked on it with Coach (Bryant) Gaines and with Coach (Jason) Howell, being ready for that moment.”
Good luck charm?
In his 17 seasons as UNC’s director of baseball operations, Dave Arendas has handled a variety of duties, from coordinating team travel and buying equipment to organizing special events and community outreach opportunities. But on Tuesday, the former All-ACC second baseman found himself doing something new: coaching first base.
With Gaines absent for the birth of his second child, Howell — who usually coaches first — served as the Tar Heels’ pitching coach for the day. That thrust Arendas into uniform, but not right away.
“I was busting his chops because I was like, ‘Man, you’ve got wear a uniform,’” Forbes said. “He said, ‘Well, I don’t have one.’ I sad, ‘Well, find one.’ These have our names on the back, I guess, so he had to go with a blue jacket.”
“We just thought it would be great,” Forbes added. “Dave is such a good dude. We knew he’d bring us some good luck, and he sure did.”
What’s next?
For the first time since 2018, UNC will travel to Raleigh this weekend for a three-game series against N.C. State. Friday’s series opener is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
Picked to finish second in the Atlantic Division in the ACC preseason coaches poll, the Wolfpack (29-13, 11-9 ACC) is coming off a three-game sweep of Radford.