No. 6 Seed UNC Eliminated From ACC Tournament Contention With Loss to Pitt

With a 5-3 loss to No. 10 seed Pitt on Tuesday night at Truist Field in Charlotte, the No. 6 seed UNC baseball team saw its chances to advance to the ACC Tournament semifinals disappear.

The Tar Heels (26-25) still have a game to play against No. 3 seed NC State on Friday, but even if the Wolfpack defeat Pitt on Thursday and UNC beats NC State the highest seeded team in the pool moves on to the semifinals according to ACC Tournament tiebreaker rules.

Tuesday’s game saw Pitt (23-19) take a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning against UNC starting pitcher Connor Ollio–who was removed with one out in the inning having already walked three batters.

The Panthers struck for two more runs in the fifth inning following a wild pitch by reliever Nik Pry and a sacrifice fly from Ron Washington Jr.

UNC got on the board for the first time in the home half of the fifth when Caleb Roberts stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and drove a hard single into center field.

Down by just one run, the Tar Heels had their comeback attempt interrupted in the seventh inning after Washington Jr. came up clutch yet again–blasting a 406-foot, two-run homer to bring Pitt’s lead back to three.

The Tar Heels had a chance to take the lead with one swing of the bat in the eighth inning, but Tomas Frick couldn’t take full advantage of the bases-loaded opportunity. Frick grounded out, which was enough to bring Roberts home to score, just not enough to threaten the Panthers’ control of the game.

Pitt then shut down the Tar Heels in the ninth, forcing both Dallas Tessar and Roberts to fly out in foul territory and striking out Second Team All-ACC centerfielder Justice Thompson.

Head coach Scott Forbes and company will now have to turn their focus to beating the rival Wolfpack on Friday to keep their record above .500 and give themselves a better resume for the NCAA Tournament.

According to D1Baseball.com, the Tar Heels are currently projected as a No. 3 seed out of four teams in the Knoxville Regional where Tennessee is the projected top seed.

Up Next:

Friday’s game between UNC and NC State in Charlotte is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. During the regular season, the Wolfpack swept the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill.

FINAL BOX SCORE

Photo via UNC Athletics

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