UNC Baseball falls short of comeback in 6-3 loss to Coastal Carolina

The North Carolina baseball team (18-16, 12-12 ACC) fell short of a comeback Tuesday evening as they lost 6-3 to the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.

After a weekend series loss to Pittsburgh, UNC came home to face another tough opponent in Coastal Carolina.

The Chanticleers homered with two outs in the top of the first to claim the lead 1-0. Caleb Roberts led off with a walk in the bottom of the first, and advanced to third on two wild pitches, but did not come across to score.

In the top of the second, Coastal Carolina added two more runs with a leadoff solo homer and another solo shot with one out to make it 3-0.

With another runner in scoring position with two outs, North Carolina failed to get the run in and ended the bottom of the second still 3-0 Chanticleers.

Coastal Carolina threatened in the top of the third as they had runners on second and third with two outs, but UNC kept them off the board.

In the bottom of the third, North Carolina put runners on first and second with two outs, but once again failed to get a run in.

The Chanticleers scored three runs in the top of the fourth as an error and two-out triple extended the lead 6-0.

Dallas Tesser led off with a solo bomb that narrowed the deficit 6-1 for UNC in the bottom of the fourth.

North Carolina led off the bottom of the sixth with a walk and another one-out walk gave the Tar Heels runners in scoring position with one out. Colby Wilkerson unfortunately grounded into a double play and the score remained 6-1.

In the bottom of the seventh, UNC walked twice with one out to give them another opportunity to cut into the lead. A force out put runners at the corners with two outs before Brett Centracchio singled home a run to make it 6-2.

North Carolina rallied late in the bottom of the ninth. With three straight singles to start the inning, UNC scored their third run and brought the tying run to the plate with no outs.

But momentum quickly faded as Justice Thompson struck out and Centracchio hit into a double play, as UNC ultimately came up short and lost 6-3 Tuesday night.

Overall, the UNC bats stalled throughout the game as they combined for a.188 batting average in the game, and a .167 with runners in scoring position. Despite this UNC managed to fight back and bring the tying run into the box.

Three UNC errors committed in the game. One of those three came with two outs in the bottom of the fourth that allowed three runs to score.

This canceled out an overall solid pitching performance from UNC collectively. The six pitchers combined for seven hits allowed, five walks and 10 K’s. The Chanticleers batted a measly .200 throughout the game. But with six runs instead of the three earned, this put UNC in a large hole as they played catch up.

Head Coach Scott Forbes said the team’s pitching and defensive mishaps were the two biggest factors into the loss on Tuesday.

“You got to pitch and you got to defend, we didn’t do either,” Forbes said. “Don’t do either, play a good team like Coastal, honestly I was amazed we were still in the game.”

With a weekend series against Miami looming, pitching will be the priority in the following days, Forbes added with a need for better starting pitching before the three-game set.

The aforementioned series against Miami starts Friday with first pitch set at 6 p.m.

For coverage of this series and all things Tar Heels look no further than Keeping It Heel!