UNC Baseball Continues to Slide, Drops Series to Wake Forest

The late season free-fall continued on Saturday for the No. 17 UNC baseball team.

For the second straight outing the Tar Heels lost in Winston Salem to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons–this one by a score of 5-4–putting the team two games below .500 in ACC play.

Now sitting at 26-14 this season (9-11 ACC) after an 18-2 start, the Tar Heels find themselves in real danger of missing out on postseason play.

Freshman catcher Logan Harvey put the Demon Deacons (25-17, 9-11 ACC) out in front with a two-run double off UNC starter JB Bukauskas in the bottom of the fourth inning, as the home team was able to hang on to a close lead for the majority of the game.

Just a day removed from leading his team to victory at the plate, Wake Forest junior Will Craig struck out four times against Bukauskas, but pitched the last two innings to pick up the win on the mound.

JB Bukauskas wasn’t able to carry the Tar Heels to victory against Wake Forest on Saturday. (Joe Bray/ UNC Athletics)

Craig ran into trouble late when he allowed UNC center fielder Tyler Ramirez to make it a 5-4 game with a one-out, RBI single in the ninth, however he recovered to retire Logan Warmoth and Brandon Riley to end the game with the tying run on base.

Brian Miller, the Tar Heel lead-off man, again led the way on offense for head coach Mike Fox–going 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs.

For a brief moment it appeared as if UNC wouldn’t need the rest of the lineup to start hitting.

After taking over for reliever Donnie Sellers with the bases loaded in the seventh, Craig walked Miller and Ramirez–tying the game at 3-3.

Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, they met the same fate in the bottom half of the frame. Hansen Butler walked Wake Forest’s Johnny Aiello with two outs and the bags full–handing over the lead for good.

The Demon Deacons added an insurance run in the eighth on a single by Kevin Conway, which proved to be the difference.

Up Next:

UNC will look to prevent a surprising sweep on Sunday, with first pitch set for 1 p.m. Jason Morgan, the 6-foot-6 righty.

Game Notes:

• Bukauskas was pulled with one out in the sixth inning after having thrown 106 pitches for the Tar Heels. The ACC leader in strikeouts entering the weekend, he struck out seven Demon Deacons on Saturday.
• Logan Warmoth, Brandon Riley, and Eli Sutherland–UNC’s 3, 4, and 5 hitters–went a combined 1-for-13 in the game.
• UNC had just seven hits in the game.

FINAL BOX SCORE

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