After winning all 10 of its three-game ACC series last season, it took only one try this year for the 20th-ranked UNC baseball team to come out on the wrong end.
Playing on the road at Jim Patterson Stadium, the Tar Heels lost 6-4 to the No. 13 Louisville Cardinals on Saturday afternoon–clinching the series for the home side, which previously earned a 5-4 victory on Friday night.
Junior third baseman Kyle Datres hit an RBI single in the top of the third inning that ultimately scored two runs and helped UNC (7-7, 0-2 ACC) build an early 2-0 lead.
Datres and Cody Roberts each recorded two hits for the Tar Heels, who have gone 1-4 against ranked opponents so far this season.
What it came down to was that Louisville simply wasn’t quite ready to let go of its undefeated record just yet.
The Cardinals (14-0, 2-0 ACC) answered Datres’s early offense with three runs in each of the next two innings against Tar Heel starting pitcher Austin Bergner.
Following a lead-off single and a pair of walks by Bergner that loaded the bases in the home half of the third, sophomore Devin Mann hit a bases-clearing double that put Louisville ahead for good.
In the next frame, Ethan Stringer got an RBI single through the left side off Bergner. Not long after, teammate Jake Snider blasted a double down the left-field line–scoring two more Cardinal runs.
UNC was then able to give themselves a chance late in the game when Brandon Martorano and Ben Casparius drove in runs in the sixth and eighth innings, respectively, to cut the team’s four-run deficit in half.
Datres and sophomore Michael Busch provided a spark of life in the ninth against reliever Sam Bordner, but the rally ended up coming just short.
A two-out single by Datres set up Busch as the game-tying run at the plate. He then hit a hard fly ball that fell just short of a home run–and was eventually caught at the warning track to seal up the Louisville victory.
Up Next:
UNC will look to salvage at least one win from the series in Sunday’s finale, with first pitch set for 12 p.m.
Photo via UNC Athletics
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