No it wasn’t quite Villanova at the buzzer for the national championship, but the No. 13 UNC baseball team ran into some heartbreak of its own on Wednesday at Boshamer Stadium.
Despite having the bases loaded and just one out in the bottom of the ninth, the Tar Heels fell victim to a crazy, game-ending double play–losing 3-2 to the UNC-Asheville Bulldogs.
UNC is now 21-8 after picking up its first mid-week loss of the season. Asheville improves to just 8-22 with the win.
The Tar Heels played arguably the sloppiest game they’ve played all year, but were able to fight back to at least put themselves in position to win.
It just didn’t work out that way this time.
A simple miscue on the bases that UNC works on every day in practice allowed UNC-Asheville to shock the Tar Heels. (Jeffrey A. Camarati/ UNC Athletics)
Junior center fielder Tyler Ramirez hit a hard drive to center field in the game’s final at-bat that appeared as if it would at least score the tying run no matter what.
Problem is, UNC-Asheville’s Joe Tietjen made an incredible diving catch and UNC’s Brian Miller–who was halfway between second and third base at the time–didn’t quite get the memo.
Tietjen noticed Miller needed to tag up before he could advance so he quickly threw the ball in to second for the final out, ending the game right then and there.
“Baserunning 101,” UNC head coach Mike Fox said after the game, visibly frustrated. “We’re just trying to tie the game there. We’re not trying to win it, we were trying to tie it. Our kids know that.
“You just turn around and stand there [on second base],” the coach continued, when asked what Miller should have done. “It’s an easy read, we practice it every single day. If he catches it, go back to second base, we score and tie the game. If he doesn’t run to third and make him make a play.””
Had Miller not been thrown out, UNC would have had its hottest hitter in recent games–shortstop Logan Warmoth–at the plate with a chance to win it.
The team’s fastest player and leader in stolen bases, Miller decided he wanted to try and take care of business a bit earlier.
“I thought it was in the gap,” Miller said. “I was trying to score, but I just made the wrong read too quick and it cost us.”
All this late-inning drama was only possible because the Tar Heels found themselves in a 3-0 hole by the bottom of the sixth inning.
Shortstop Logan Warmoth was left hanging in the on-deck circle when the game ended abruptly. (Jeffrey A. Camarati/ UNC Athletics)
That happened because offensively UNC was unable to get anything going, recording just six hits on the day.
The only two runs the Tar Heels scored came following a trio of walks in the bottom of the sixth inning.
With the bases loaded and one out, Warmoth hit a sacrifice fly. Then freshman Brandon Riley doubled home another run before Adam Pate flew out–ending the only threat the Tar Heels put together before the final sequence.
“It’s a hard skill,” Fox said. “We have a sign on our board [in the locker room] that says, ‘Hitting is the most difficult skill in sport, therefore don’t rely on it to win.
“I probably need to go take that down, because they’re taking it a little too far,” he added.
Up Next:
The Tar Heels will host Virginia Tech at Boshamer Stadium this weekend for their three-game ACC series. First pitch on Friday is set for 7 p.m.
Game Notes:
- Brian Miller originally committed to UNC-Asheville before deciding to walk-on in Chapel Hill last year as a freshman.
- Warmoth led the Tar Heel bats by going 2-for-3 for the second straight day–the only UNC player to have more than a single hit.
- Freshman Rodney Hutchison started on the mound for the Tar Heels, tossing three innings of four-hit ball. He was replaced by AJ Bogucki after allowing an unearned run in the fourth.
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