UNC Drops 2nd Straight ACC Series to Virginia Tech
The Tar Heels showed signs of growth in the series finale
With every chance he got amid North Carolina’s 18-3 start to the season, its best since 2016, head coach Scott Forbes stressed to his players that at some point, likely sooner rather than later, they’d face some adversity.
But not even he could have predicted it would come as swiftly it did, in the form of five straight ACC losses, including two to Virginia Tech this weekend.
Looking to rebound after being swept by Miami the previous weekend, UNC suffered arguably its worst loss of the season in Friday’s series opener to the Hokies, falling 12-1. Nothing went right for the Tar Heels, who stranded 10 runners on base and allowed six home runs, their most since surrendering seven to UCLA on Feb. 18, 2000. As bad as that was, things didn’t go much better in Saturday’s 7-3 defeat, in which UNC left 11 runners on base and issued 11 walks, leaving Forbes searching for the best way to get through to his team.
“I got on them pretty good after Friday’s game, which was rare for me,” he said. “We had some plays that I thought – not that we had quit, but this team has effort, and it wasn’t quite to our standards. I was thinking (Saturday) night, ‘Man, maybe I shouldn’t have got on them so hard,’ because they didn’t respond great.”
When the team reconvened Sunday, hours after the Tar Heel men’s basketball team’s victory over Duke in the NCAA semifinals, Forbes spoke to his players about Hubert Davis’ squad and the obstacles it overcame to reach the national championship game, trying to once again illustrate how every team deals with adversity. By all indications, Forbes’ message got through, as UNC rallied from a 3-0 deficit for a 10-6 win.
“I think they all collectively really listened and realized, ‘OK, we trust Coach right here. He’s telling us this happens,’” Forbes said. “We’ve been talking the whole time about, ‘You’ve got to play the current day.’ I explained to them, ‘You could’ve won the last five and lost (Sunday) and lost the next five. That’s just the way baseball works.’”
While discussing his team’s skid, Forbes tried to stay away from contributing it to complacency, but didn’t rule it out as a potential factor. No matter, he and the Tar Heels (20-8, 6-6 ACC) now hope they can turn the last two weekends into a positive.
“You look at our team – not preseason ranked, starts off really, really hot,” Forbes said. “Any team can get a little bit comfortable or complacent, and I think when something happens like that, if you’re lucky that it happens at the right time, you can really take it and let it make you better and tougher.”
Squandered opportunities
After going 6-for-37 with runners in scoring position in their sweep at the hands of Miami as well as Tuesday’s 6-4 win against UNCW, the Tar Heels’ struggles in such situations continued into their first two games against Virginia Tech. UNC went 4-for-27 with runners in scoring position Friday and Saturday, bringing its average in such situations to .156 (10-for-64) over six games.
“I definitely felt (Saturday) night when I walked in the locker room that they were fearing failure,” Forbes said. “A lot of athletes and teams go through that, and I told them, ‘I want to take that off you because you’re going to fail. You’re in a place where we preach positivity, we preach poise, we preach body language, and it’s going to happen.’
“Also, offensively, you can be affected some if you’re behind and if you’re trying to get all the runs back. We’ve pitched so well all year and we haven’t pitched great in this stretch. But I’m just a firm believer in when you have something happen that’s hard, it’s going to make you better – every single time. You just have to fight through it.”
The Tar Heels’ ability to bounce back and go 4-for-10 with runners in scoring position played a critical part in Sunday’s win. Even then, they’re now hitting .245 with runners in scoring position this season, the second-worst mark among ACC teams – Duke is batting .243.
Grintz goes off
Ever since Tomas Frick arrived before the 2021 season, playing time has been hard to come by for Eric Grintz. Entering Sunday, the redshirt sophomore had logged just 33 plate appearances in 24 games over the last two seasons, but with the coaching staff looking to give Frick a break behind the dish, Grintz drew his first start of the year and made the most of it.
After falling behind 3-0 on a pair of homers in the top of the second, Grintz got UNC on the board with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the ensuing frame. With the right fielder catching the ball against the wall, Grintz just missed a grand slam for his career homer. Three innings later, though, after driving in two runs with a third-inning double, Grintz hit a solo shot that pushed the Tar Heels’ lead to 7-5.
“It’s just an exciting moment for me,” said Grintz of the homer. “I got down in the hole real quick 0-2 there, but you have three strikes for a reason. I was just looking for a pitch to hit there, and I was fortunate enough to get a changeup up in the zone that I was able to put a pretty good swing on.”
Grintz later added a single to finish 3-for-4 with a career-high tying four RBIs and is now 6-for-7 with three walks, a hit-by-pitch, a sacrifice fly and eight RBIs this season. Those numbers aren’t completely surprising given some of his past ones – including a .321/.345/.464 slash line in 11 games during the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season and a .317/.443/.354 slash line in 26 games in the Appalachian League last summer. It does, however, appear that he’s improved and could be in line for an expanded role.
“We’ve needed to catch somebody else, and Grintz has always been an unbelievable defender and his hard work is starting to pay off for us,” Forbes said. “I think that could really help us moving forward, and I think it could help improve Frick offensively so he’s not as worn down.”
Mac attack
Despite entering the series hitting .189/.330/.311 over 109 plate appearances, Mac Horvath has looked progressively better at the plate as the season has gone on. This weekend offered the best evidence yet that he might be turning a corner as he went 4-for-10 with a homer, a double and four walks. He also stole two bases Friday, bringing his season total to 10 after he didn’t attempt a single steal in 2021.
Horvath said his performance followed a meeting with assistant coach Jesse Wierzbicki on Thursday in which they identified two things that could help him – moving his hands a little higher and slightly closing off his stance. Those changes resulted in five batted balls of 100 mph or higher, according to UNC’s analytics team. He entered the weekend with 13 in the 21 games in which data was available.
“(Wierzbicki) was trying to figure out if something is missing because (Horvath) is on everything and it’s like tying him up,” Forbes said. “(Wierzbicki) said he really felt like he found something. I feel like Mac, when his hands got going really good, were in a different spot, and I even noticed it first day of (batting practice). He looked looser, like he was getting to pitches more and he wasn’t getting tied up.
“That’s cool to see when a guy like that, one of your assistants, is working that hard. Hitting is hard. Being a hitting coach is hard because you fail so dang much. But that was good to see. If (Horvath) can get going, that would really be a big deal for us.”
Looking for length
Led by Brandon Schaeffer – who went at least five innings in each of his first four starts – Tar Heel starters recorded six starts of five or more innings over the first 17 games of the year. Perhaps no number was more integral to UNC’s 15-2 start than that one. And similarly, it’s a lack of such starts that seems to be one of, if not the biggest, reasons for the team’s recent play.
With Connor Bovair, Max Carlson and Shaddon Peavyhouse each going 3 2/3 innings or fewer against the Hokies, Tar Heel starters have combined for 35 2/3 innings and only two starts of more than four innings in the last 11 games. Multiple factors have contributed to that, from Schaeffer (back spasms) and Carlson (blister) exiting their starts against Duke due to injuries, to guys pitching on short rest. Either way, it’s a trend UNC needs to – and believes it can – reverse.
“I was talking to Coach (Bryant) Gaines and he was like, ‘Man, starting pitching, just like it kind of got us last year,’” Forbes said. “I said, ‘Yes, but we were thinner, we were injured.’ I think all of those guys are legit weekend arms, including Schaeffer. … But realistically, we all know you can’t be consistent without guys who are giving you good starts.
“We know who our starters are. We know two of them, for sure – Carlson and (Bovair). And Brandon can start. There’s no doubt in my mind they’ll start going longer for us.”
Schaeffer’s save
No member of the Tar Heels’ usual starting rotation has struggled more over the last few weeks than Schaeffer – who, after registering a 2.60 ERA in 17 1/3 innings over his first three starts, including two quality starts, entered the weekend with a 6.08 ERA in 13 1/3 innings over his last four starts. That included a get-right start against UNCW on Tuesday in which the WVU Potomac State transfer gave up four runs (one earned) over 2 2/3 innings.
Coming off that performance, UNC decided to start Peavyhouse over Schaeffer on Sunday, despite the latter being on five days rest. With no outs and runners on first and second in the top of the ninth, though, Forbes called on Schaeffer to close out the game, and the lefty did just that, striking out the first batter he faced before fielding a a grounder and firing to second to initiate a double play and pick up his first save as a Tar Heel.
Forbes’ decision to turn to Schaeffer in such a situation didn’t come without risks, as the pitcher could have lost much, if not all, of his remaining confidence if he faltered. That Forbes still felt comfortable enough to go with him says a lot about what he and the coaches think of Schaeffer. And perhaps the outing can spark a turnaround.
“That’s a tough deal; you start Friday night and all of a sudden you’re in there in the biggest situation,” Forbes said. “So, that’s a credit to him. … It could be a blessing in disguise – we might need to use him out of the 'pen, who knows? You can never have too many lefties out of the 'pen.”
What’s next?
UNC will travel to Charlotte on Wednesday to face South Carolina at 7 p.m. at Truist Field. The game was initially scheduled for Tuesday, but was postponed Monday due to the threat of inclement weather.
Picked to finish fifth in the East Division in the SEC preseason coaches poll, South Carolina (13-14, 3-6 SEC) dropped two of three games at Missouri this weekend.