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The Diamond Heels swept State and its fans right out of Chapel Hill.
Carolina had already done the damage by winning the first two games of the final regular season homestead, one with a walk-off squeeze bunt and the other by a blowout, both equally embarrassing.
But Scott Forbes’ improving team put the red cherry atop his new five-year contract by sweeping NC State and all but knocking the Wolfpack out of the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year while Carolina could be contending for one of the home sites in the regional round.
A sold-out Boshamer Stadium had a lot of red shirts in the stands, and it turned into a flush-faced parade up and down the aisles to the beer stands because very little was happening on the field for their team.
By the fourth inning, the Tar Heels had scored in every frame and led 7-0. State had been held to one hit by UNC starter Jake Knapp, who was sticky stuff-frisked by the umps at the request of Pack coach Elliott Avent, whose career record versus the hated Heels was about to drop to 38-46.
Knapp turned over his hat and glove and laughed off the inspection before blanking the Pack for a fourth straight inning.
It riled up a crowd that relished Carolina’s first home sweep of State since 2006. In their seventh win in the last eight games against State, the Heels kept pouring it on with three more in the fourth to lead by a touchdown and field goal with 14 hits.
Do they have the 10-run rule in college baseball? After another run in the 5th, Carolina’s inning-by-inning tally on the new scoreboard in left-centerfield looked like a combination lock code 31331.
After State hit a solo homer in the 6th and another long ball caught by Vance Honeycutt at the centerfield wall, the State crowd went bananas for being behind 1-11.
The Tar Heels, finally, didn’t score in two innings and went on to win, 12-2, as Forbes got to empty his bench and bull pen on Senior Day.
It was their fifth straight win and eighth in the last ten games, scoring 27 runs in the process, to bump their ACC record 14-11 (with three games left this weekend at Clemson) and 33-17 overall. State dropped to 10-16 in the ACC, an NCAA death knell.
Carolina had five players drive in multiple runs, with 18 total hits and every starter getting at least one, went 10 for 20 with runners in scoring position and had seven two-out RBIs.
All in all, another great day at The Bosh — unless you were wearing red.
Featured image via Inside Carolina/Jim Hawkins
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I love it when Chanksy chants. But…did this chant have a bit of a gloat in it?
It was a great weekend beginning on Thursday. Nothing much better than sweeping the red team and in a couple of blow outs to boot.