University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: The Breaks of the Game
May 24, 2014 | Baseball, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
By Turner Walston
Watch enough baseball and you're bound to be frustrated. Sometimes, the team with the most hits doesn't score the most runs. Sometimes the team with the best pitching doesn't get the win. Friday night, that team was Carolina. Such are the breaks of the game.
The Tar Heels entered Friday night's tilt with Virginia needing a win, not only to keep their ACC Tournament title hopes alive, but also looking to bolster their NCAA Tournament hopes with a victory over the nation's top-ranked team. A 2-2 season split with Virginia (Carolina took one of three from the Cavaliers in Charlottesville in April) would do wonders for the Tar Heels.
Junior right-hander Benton Moss, a Morehead-Cain scholar who performs as brilliantly in the classroom and on the stage as he does on the mound, rose to the occasion. Moss displayed his full arsenal, mixing in a well-placed curveball with his fastball. When Moss has his breaking ball working for him, it bodes well for the Tar Heels. He would give the Tar Heels 6.2 innings of four-hit ball, with no walks and eight strikeouts, and no earned runs allowed.
Unfortunately, Moss couldn't do it all himself. After Branden Cogswell singled in the fourth, Nick Howard hit into a fielder's choice to first base. Parks Jordan sent the ball home, and while Cogswell danced between third and home (before being tagged out), Howard was able to reach second. Then, Landon Lassiter's throw sailed over the glove of first baseman Alex Raburn and Howard crossed the plate from second base. The breaks of the game.
Carolina could have tied it in the bottom half, when Adrian Chacon singled, and then Korey Dunbar laced a ball to right field. Had it bounced a few inches lower, instead of over the fence, Chacon might have scored from first base. Instead, Dunbar's hit was a ground-rule double, and he was left at third after an Adam Pate strikeout. “I don't know if Adrian Chacon would have scored,” Tar Heel coach Mike Fox said, “but I sure would have been waving him.” Such are the breaks of the game.
In the seventh, another fielding error allowed the Cavaliers to send John La Prise home for a 2-0 lead. The breaks of the game.
Finally after the stretch, Wood Myers parked a ball into the net above right-center field to tie the game. It was Myers' first career home run, a no-doubter on a change up out of the hand of Whit Mayberry. Lassiter doubled to try to keep a good thing going, but he was stranded at second. Even still, the Tar Heels should have taken some momentum with them into the field. But Zach Rice's first pitch of the eighth hit Joe McCarthy. Shortly after Spencer Trayner entered for the Tar Heels, McCarthy nabbed his 11th stolen base of the year, getting just under the tag attempt. A Derek Fisher sent him home for the lead. Carolina got runners to second base in both the eighth and ninth but nothing to show for it and dropped a 3-2 decision. Such are the breaks of the game.
Friday night's game against Virginia told the story of the Tar Heels' season in nine innings. They played toe-to-toe with a good opponent and yet couldn't quite make the plays to swing the result their way. We saw it against Florida State two weeks ago. We saw it last weekend in Coral Gables. We saw it in 13 innings against Georgia Tech, and twice against East Carolina, and at Duke in 12 innings, and on Sunday against Wake Forest, and at Maryland. Carolina is 10-13 in one-run games in 2014. Tar Heel fans are accustomed to seeing that statistic well in the Tar Heels' favor, feeling confident that team will come up with a timely hit, or a big strikeout, or a nifty catch to end a threat. Instead, it seems as if the Tar Heels are on the other side of that equation all too often.
But then again, these aren't your older brother's Tar Heels. Carolina started a freshman or sophomore at eight of the ten positions on Friday. With Michael Russell sitting the game out with back trouble, they played without their All-ACC shortstop and leading hitter. And yet despite their youth, despite the mistakes, and without Russell, they had a chance to win in the ninth, with a runner on second and one out.
Maybe that's what the Tar Heels take from Friday night. Not the bitter taste of disappointment and missed opportunity, but the knowledge that next time, they'll be better for having battled as they did. Play hard and play smart, and things might break your way.
So no, the Tar Heels won't play in another ACC title game, but they have a shot at Maryland, a team that will. Carolina has the chance to stamp their season with a win, to come away from the week in Greensboro at a respectable 2-2. Saturday, the Tar Heels have plenty to play for. And maybe they can make their own breaks.
