UNC Baseball drops mid-week game at No. 8 Coastal Carolina

The UNC baseball program could not keep their momentum going from the previous week as they lost at no. 8 Coastal Carolina on Tuesday.

The UNC baseball program began their four-game road trip to end the regular season on Tuesday by traveling to Conway, South Carolina for a matchup with no. 8 Coastal Carolina in the second meeting this year between the two programs.

Unfortunately for the Diamond Heels, they were short-handed against the Chanticleers.

Obviously, we assume these players weren’t in the lineup due to the suspensions handed down last week. In the report of suspensions, there wasn’t a release of who would have to serve a one-game suspension. Being down four key position players put the Diamond Heels in a difficult position before the first pitch was ever thrown.

It appeared early on that Carolina wouldn’t have any issues. The first three Tar Heels reached base on just eight pitches to load the bases. North Carolina would end up with three runs in their half of the first inning. Coastal Carolina didn’t wait long to punch back though, scoring three runs of their own in the first inning to tie the game back up at three.

Carolina’s offense would go stagnant for much of the rest of the game. The Chanticleers scored two more in the second to take a 5-3 lead and then would tack on three more on a three-run home run in the seventh for an 8-3 lead over the Tar Heels.

The short-handed UNC offense would try to overcome adversity with a two-run home run in the eighth to cut the deficit to 8-5, and Mac Horvath led off the ninth with a triple hoping to start a rally, but it wouldn’t be enough as the Tar Heels lost 8-6.

Obviously, missing key pieces of a fiery Carolina offense didn’t help matters in this game, but it appears the strategy was to have them serve their suspension during a non-conference game rather than an important ACC series against NC State or Clemson.

The UNC baseball program will now stay in the Palmetto State for the rest of the week and head to the Upstate where they will face the no. 7 Clemson Tigers in the final weekend of the regular season. There is a scenario where Carolina can win the ACC Coastal Division and earn the No. 2 seed in the ACC Tournament:

Game One against the Tigers will be on Thursday at 6:00 PM and can be found on ACC Network Extra.

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