Everything was going well for the Diamond Heels through the first five innings of the Super Regional opener on Friday afternoon.
Ryan Lynch was dealing on the mound, the Tar Heels offense chased USC's ace Mason Edwards after three innings of work and they held a 5-1 lead going into the sixth inning.
Unfortunately, from that point on, it was nothing but a disaster for UNC.
Where do we begin...
Well, Lynch got into a bit of trouble in the top of the sixth, as the tying run was set to come to the plate with two outs in the inning. Only at 89 pitches, Lynch probably had at least another batter in him, but Scott Forbes turned to bullpen ace Walker McDuffie in an attempt to put out the fire.
The move made sense, given the batter at the plate homered earlier in the game off Lynch. Forbes likely didn't want him to see his right-hander for a third time, opting to go to a fresh arm.
Unfortunately, McDuffie struggled, walking the first batter he faced to load the bases. He followed it by allowing a grand slam, one that gave USC the lead for good, as one swing of the bat crushed all the momentum and energy that Tar Heel faithful had at Boshamer Stadium.
USC continued to build momentum in their favor, tacking on some insurance runs while completely silencing the Tar Heels offense. North Carolina had a stretch from the sixth inning to the start of the ninth where they didn't have a single batter reach base, and when Jake Schaffner snapped the streak with a leadoff single to start the bottom of the ninth, but was erased on the next pitch when Gavin Gallaher grounded into a double play.
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Now, North Carolina finds itself in a do or die situation. One more loss this weekend will result in the season ending for the Diamond Heels, as they hope to avoid another year in which they fell just short of making a trip to Omaha.
Jason DeCaro takes the mound on Saturday afternoon with the season on the line. While the situation itself isn't how North Carolina hoped it would play out, the beautiful thing about baseball is that tomorrow is a new day and a fresh opportunity to re-write the narrative.
The hope is that this group can find a way to extend the season another day when they take the field at the Bosh in less than 24 hours.
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