University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Must Improve Little Things
April 10, 2014 | Baseball
By Ben Brown
Wednesday night's non-conference matchup for North Carolina against Coastal Carolina came down to situational execution. Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, the Chanticleers were more fundamentally sound, which is why they left Boshamer Stadium with a 3-2 extra-inning win.
The perfect examples of how Carolina was out-executed came when Coastal plated the tying and winning runs with two safety-squeeze bunts. Those plays came after Carolina didn't execute offensively to advance and drive in base runners earlier in the game.
"I mean we have to get better doing those things (situational execution)," said Mike Fox. "They aren't things that we haven't practiced since September 5. I don't know how many times we've worked on bunt defenses and making plays or getting a bunt down, and it's one thing to practice them repeatedly, but it's another thing to do them in a game. The bottom line is when it's called for in a game we've got to be able to make plays like that."
Coupled with the lapses offensively and defensively, the Tar Heel pitching staff struggled to have consistent command of the strike zone as they issued 11 walks in the game. Although the Chanticleers didn't hit many balls hard throughout the course of the game, the walks were base runners nonetheless, which kept Carolina in high-stress situations as the contest wore on.
In the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth innings, the Tar Heels issued a leadoff walk to Coastal, which especially proved lethal in the top of the ninth inning when the Chanticleers tied the game.
"Throwing strikes is something that we've prided ourselves on for a decade," Fox said. "But we didn't give ourselves a chance of winning tonight really from the second inning on. You know, we've got to go back to work, the kids aren't trying to throw balls. But that was disappointing to watch because you can look at the box score and see that they only got six hits, but with those 11 walks its like they got 17 hits, and you're not going to win many games like that."
While Wednesday's loss was certainly frustrating on a couple of different levels, the problems that have plagued the Tar Heels this season are fixable, and with the stable of talent that Carolina has, can be overcome this season.
One area that the team is improving in is its offense, which is trending in the right direction despite scoring just two runs against Coastal Carolina. 2013 freshman standouts Landon Lassiter and Skye Bolt are both getting into more of a rhythm at the plate as each recorded two hits against the Chanticleers.
One of Lassiter's base hits was a solid single to the opposite field, which shows that he is rounding into form at the plate because he's at his best when he uses the entire field consistently. With Lassiter and Bolt's recent progress, combined with breakout seasons from Michael Russell and Tom Zengel and steady contributions from freshman Wood Myers, the team can start to rely on a more steady offensive attack, one that routinely has tough at-bats and produces with runners in scoring position.
With the offense improving, the Tar Heels also have bright spots in its bullpen with freshman left-hander Zach Rice and with Reilly Hovis, who has stepped up nicely as the team's closer after Chris McCue went down with a blood clot in his right shoulder.
Two dozen games remain in the 2014 regular season, which is plenty of time to get on a roll and get hot for the postseason. In order for that to happen, however, the Tar Heels must improve in the details that cost them on Wednesday night.
