The 18th-ranked UNC baseball team suffered a mid-week loss at home on Tuesday at Boshamer Stadium, falling to the Liberty Flames by a score of 8-7.

Angel Zarate, Justice Thompson and Clemente Inclan each homered for the Tar Heels (7-4), while a total of five different UNC players drove in at least one run.

That would not be enough to hold off Liberty, however, as the Flames scored four times–including a three-run homer–in the fourth inning to break what had been a 3-3 tie.

Liberty added another run in the top of the seventh inning which ended up making all the difference, as UNC came within one run in the bottom half of the same inning thanks to a two-run pinch-hit single from Jake Holtzapple.

The Flames held on in the final two frames to complete the victory for head coach Scott Jackson, who was a longtime assistant at UNC beside current Tar Heel head coach Scott Forbes.

“I want to give Liberty credit, they came in, they played well, they took advantage of mistakes we made,” Forbes said afterwards. “There was a ball hit and we should’ve gotten an out at second base, and they got four runs in that inning. I believe we had a passed ball in the seventh and that gave them another run.

“So, all the guys are thinking ‘well, this and that, I didn’t hit, I didn’t do this,’ but at the end of the day you’ve got to pitch and you’ve got to defend,” the coach added. “We just didn’t pitch at the level that we’re capable of, and they made us pay for it. They deserved to win the game and we didn’t.”

Up Next:

The Tar Heels will try to get back in the win column in their next game on Friday, when they begin a three-game series at home against Clemson.

 

FINAL BOX SCORE

 

 

Photo via UNC Athletics

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