University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Bitter Sweep
April 17, 2011 | Baseball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
April 17, 2011
By Adam Lucas
RALEIGH--In the wake of Friday night's uneven 5-4 loss to NC State, which featured uncharacteristic Carolina offense, defense and pitching, Mike Fox looked puzzled as he said, "I'm not sure which team I brought over here tonight."
By the time the weekend was finished, he still wasn't sure. For the second straight weekend, the Tar Heels had a weekend result they hadn't seen in over a decade--but this one was as bitter as last weekend's first series victory in Tallahassee since 1995 was sweet. This time, Carolina suffered a sweep at the hands of NC State for the first time since 1997 and fell into fourth place in the challenging Coastal Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Pack capped the sweep with a 10-2 win on Sunday that served as a handy yet painful capsule of the weekend's play. Beginning with Cory Mazzoni's solid outing on Friday--the best performance by any starter on either side all weekend--State simply played better than Carolina.
"These things happen in college baseball," Fox said. "I don't care what kind of team you've got, you're going to have a stretch where you don't play well and things go wrong."
The three-game losing streak--even coupled with the fact that the Tar Heels weren't completely crisp at Florida State--doesn't qualify as a baseball emergency; it's a mark of how successful the program has been recently that it's just the fourth such streak since 2006. But the Tar Heels definitely left Raleigh with a clear picture of what needs to improve in an important next week that includes a home game against Coastal Carolina and a three-game Easter weekend homestand against Coastal rival Miami.
Offense
The Tar Heels hit .238 as a team, easily their lowest weekend series batting average, and for the third time in the last four series, they had more strikeouts (17) than walks (14).
But the real problem wasn't the raw numbers. Instead, it was the constant struggle to get a key hit at the right time and move baserunners. Six times in the first 13 innings of the series, Carolina had the leadoff man aboard and failed to score. "It felt like a lot of our guys were hitting behind in the count 0-1 or 0-2," Fox said.
Although Sunday was largely an offensive washout, the Tar Heels did rotate in some fresh bats late in the game, with Matt Roberts, Parks Jordan and Brian Holberton all picking up hits.
Overall, though, some of the offensive tribulations were due to perhaps the most underrated key to the State series sweep...
Baserunning
The running game has been one of the keys to one of the nation's best offenses through the first two months of the season. But when Chaz Frank stole second in the ninth inning of Sunday's game, it marked Carolina's first stolen base in seven games, which spanned 64 innings of offense. The traditional top three in the Tar Heel order--Ben Bunting, Levi Michael and Tommy Coyle--have combined for 37 steals in 44 attempts, but none of them have a stolen base since Michael (who has been slowed by injuries) stole second against the Eagles.
But it was mental errors on the basepaths that doomed a couple potential rallies against State. With two on, one out and the hot-hitting Michael due next, the Tar Heels ran into a line-out double play at second base in the eighth on Saturday, then ran into another line-out double play at second in the fourth inning on Sunday.
"It was atrocious baserunning for us all weekend," Fox said. "Baserunning is probably my biggest emphasis and my biggest pet peeve is not knowing how to run the bases. We've got young guys out there [both runners in the above scenarios were freshmen], and it's one thing to do it in practice, but it's a different story on the road and you're hyped up out there."
Pitching
The Tar Heel relievers kept their team in the first two games, but ultimately the fact that Carolina starters combined for just 10 innings pitched caused the bullpen to implode on Sunday. The hottest Carolina pitcher had been Michael Morin, but he struggled on Sunday and was charged with six earned runs in 1.1 innings of work.
"Every time we looked at the scoreboard it felt like we were in two- and three-ball counts," Fox said. "We put them in good hitting counts and they got some big hits and found some holes."
The bright spot on the mound might have been freshman Shane Taylor, who for the second straight weekend entered in relief of Saturday starter Kent Emanuel and kept the Tar Heels close (4.2 innings, 2 hits, 0 earned runs). No one on the mound, however, was immune to...
Defense
Defense had arguably been the hallmark of the 2011 Tar Heels, as they entered the weekend fielding .982, on pace to shatter the school record in that category. But they committed five errors over three games, seemingly all of them at crucial times.
The weekend highlighted the thin margin for error under the new NCAA bat rules. With big innings less frequently coming via the three-run homer or multiple homers in an inning, defensive miscues seem to be the most common way to crack the door for a big inning. Of the six innings in which State scored more than one run this weekend, four of them included at least one Tar Heel error.
"We just didn't play well in any phase of the game this weekend," Fox said. "And when that happens, you're going to lose all three games."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of six books on Carolina basketball, including the official chronicle of the first 100 years of Tar Heel hoops, A Century of Excellence, which is available now. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter.
