Tar Heels Stumble at Miami
UNC's road woes reemerged in its sweep at the hands of the Hurricanes
For much of Sunday’s series finale against Miami, No. 14 North Carolina looked as if it might escape Coral Gables, Florida, with a confidence-boosting win after falling to the 24th-ranked Hurricanes 8-5 Friday and 7-3 Saturday.
Propelled by a sensational start by Max Carlson and Hunter Stokely’s two-run single in the fourth, UNC entered the bottom of the ninth having led for five innings. With the steady Caden O’Brien on the mound, a victory almost seemed inevitable as the left-hander worked around a leadoff walk to retire the next two hitters. But after going up 0-2 on Gaby Gutierrez, O’Brien hung a changeup and the Miami pinch-hitter took advantage, singling up the middle to drive in the tying run from second.
For five more innings, the Tar Heels battled, trying their hardest to salvage the series. With one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 14th, though, the Hurricanes delivered the decisive blow, as Renzo Gonzalez singled to give Miami a 3-2 win and complete the first sweep of UNC this season.
The walk-off loss dropped the Tar Heels’ record to 18-6 and 5-4 in ACC play. Most notably, it lowered their record to 3-15 in their last 18 games played outside North Carolina – including an 0-4 mark this season.
“When you know your team, which I feel like I do, you know what type of team you have and how you need to coach them, especially in situations like this,” head coach Scott Forbes said. “But we’ve talked about it and our guys know that you’re going to have adversity. It’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of when it happens and how you respond.
“I thought we played OK. I didn’t think we played that well all weekend in all the facets together and we still were in every game. I love our team, I love our guys. I thought (Sunday) really showed their toughness. … We got swept at Clemson in 2019 – that was hard – on a walk-off home run. But we recovered and had a great year. So there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll be better because of it, as tough as it is.”
Held in check
Although their 4.50 ERA entering the weekend might not have reflected it, the Hurricanes roster several high-upside arms, namely Carson Palmquist, Baseball America’s No. 61 prospect in the 2022 MLB Draft; Karson Ligon, Perfect Game’s No. 83 player in the Class of 2021; Alex McFarlane, BA’s No. 83 prospect in the 2022 MLB Draft; and Alejandro Rosario, BA’s No. 40 college prospect in the 2023 MLB Draft.
Those four, along with the rest of Miami’s staff, largely kept the Tar Heels’ bats at bay, holding them to a .172 average (5-for-29) with runners in scoring position and striking out 44 in the series. The 44 strikeouts were UNC’s most in a three-game series since striking out 50 times at Virginia Tech from March 5-7, 2021.
“It might have been just trying to do too much,” said Forbes of the strikeouts. “We’ll work on that this week. Obviously, it’s hard to win games when you strike out 44 times in three games. Let’s just call a spade a spade. We’ll go back and watch the strikeouts and see what the zone was like and work on it to try to get better at two-strike hitting.”
No hitter was exempt from the Tar Heels’ struggles, but the Hurricanes did an especially good job attacking Vance Honeycutt, who went 1-for-15 with nine strikeouts.
“Welcome to a tough weekend in the ACC,” Forbes said. “Vance is a freshman. He’s got a little bit of swing and miss in there. He’s had a lot of success. He just didn’t have a good weekend. You can let things like this really make you better, if you have toughness, and I think Vance has that. I trust our coaches – they’ll work hard with him. His approach was good – it was just one of those situations where he was getting pitched really, really tough and he had a bad weekend.”
Schaeffer’s struggles
For as much promise as he showed in the fall and preseason, Brandon Schaeffer has posted inconsistent results over his first six starts with the Tar Heels.
Over his first three outings – including a pair of quality starts – the WVU Potomac State transfer surrendered six runs (five earned) and 14 hits while striking out 17 and walking four over 17 1/3 innings. After giving up three runs and six hits while striking out one and walking two in a season-low 2 1/3 innings Friday, he’s allowed nine runs (eight earned) and 21 hits in 10 2/3 innings over his last three starts. In that span, the lefty has walked four while striking out six.
“I don’t think Brandon has really pitched well yet,” Forbes said. “He’s just been OK, and he’s managed to still do alright for us. He’s got to make that adjustment this week. He’s got to do what he does best, and that’s command the baseball. He’s not a velocity guy, and he might be trying to be a little bit too much. I talked to him (Sunday) and said what got you here is you can really pitch and we’ve got to get back to you pitching like you’re capable of pitching.”
Carlson's career day
After a blister cut his previous start against Duke short after 2 1/3 innings, UNC elected to push Carlson’s start against Miami back a day to give him extra time to recover. That decision paid off in a big way Sunday, as the righty turned in his best outing of the season – and perhaps his career.
Carlson showed no signs of being hampered by his blister in allowing one run on two hits over five innings. The sophomore struck out the side twice en route to a career-high 11 punchouts, besting his previous mark of eight, set in his first career game against James Madison on Feb. 20, 2021. He also generated 20 swings-and-misses, surpassing his previous season high of 16, set against East Carolina on Feb. 26.
Over his first five innings, Carlson allowed only one batter to reach via a single, but after issuing another single and his lone walk to begin the sixth, Forbes pulled him. The Hurricanes went on to score their first run later in the inning, but with Carlson sitting at 76 pitches and still working his way back from offseason elbow surgery, Forbes’ decision was a relatively easy one.
“Max is a Friday night-type starter, we’re just easing him back into it off his injury. …” Forbes said. “Max stepped it up for us and threw great, which we had to have.”
Through six starts, Carlson has recorded a 1.46 ERA, 34.3% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate over 24 2/3 innings. Of the 17 hits he’s surrendered, only one has gone for extra bases.
Bullpen hiccups
As unbelievable as UNC’s bullpen has been this season, entering the weekend with a 1.76 ERA over 102 1/3 innings, Miami got to it in a few key spots.
On Friday, the Tar Heels were within striking distance, down 3-1, when Yohandy Morales hit a three-run home run off Gage Gillian with two outs in the sixth. That and the two runs Miami scored in the seventh loomed large as UNC pushed across four runs over the last two innings.
On Saturday, the Tar Heels were leading 2-1 when Kyle Mott – then in his third inning of relief – gave up a walk, three singles and a double to the first five batters he faced in the seventh, putting UNC in a 6-3 hole it couldn’t dig out of. Then, on Sunday, Davis Palermo allowed an inherited runner to score in the sixth before the Hurricanes tied the game in the ninth and won it in the 14th.
“Our bullpen has been so good,” Forbes said. “I thought they battled their tails off. You do have to give some credit to the other team. You don’t like to do that, but they did a good job. When we walked a guy or didn’t get a leadoff guy out, they did a pretty good job of finding a way to get him in – something that we didn’t do.”
What’s next?
The Tar Heels return to Boshamer Stadium on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. tilt with UNCW. Picked to finish second in the Colonial Athletic Association’s preseason coaches poll, the Seahawks (13-10) dropped two of three games to William & Mary this weekend.