It's a good thing Game 3 of the UNC baseball program's weekend series against Duke started at 2 p.m. The series decider—UNC won Thursday night's game 4-3 but lost on Friday 5-9—was an intense affair that needed extra innings to determine a winner.
This series, always intense, was a guided tour in the different kinds of baseball-watching pain. Game 1 took a miracle double-play to hold on to a one-run lead. Game 2 was a sound beating from Duke, mainly from the fat bat of third baseman Ben Miller, who smashed in two home runs. Game 3 saw North Carolina blow a three-run lead in the top of the ninth, then have to claw and scratch for five free innings.
The name of the game in the rubber match was fielding errors. A largely even contest in the early innings led to UNC nursing a one-run lead in the bottom of the eighth. With a runner on second base, Jake Berger's error allowed Tyson Bass to score and Alex Madera to reach first. After a walk, Jackson Van De Brake's single scored Madera, raising UNC's lead to three. Plenty of space to close out the game, right?
Enter relief pitcher Ryan Lynch. The freshman pitcher threw only 11 pitches. Only one of them was a true strike. He walked the only two batters he faced, which prompted Scott Forbes to haul out Camron Seagraves to clean things up. Unfortunately, the next batter was Ben Miller, who loaded the bases, then scored with two of his buddies later in the inning.
Seagraves was much better with the bases empty. He fanned four batters in three innings and looked strong, but was sat after walking the first batter in the top of the 12th inning. North Carolina trotted out three more pitchers after Seagraves, and none of them gave up a run. Unfortunately, the Diamond Heels weren't scoring any runs either.
Remember what we said about errors? Duke had one more locked in the chamber to see this game out. Tyson Bass walked to lead off the inning, then was moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt. Alex Madera hit a high chopper to second base, but Jake Berger had the ball hit the webbing of his glove, but had it pop out behind him. Bass was already on his bike, and scored to win the game.
It was really an inexplicable error from Berger. But in a game that broke UNC baseball's record for the longest recorded game in program history, perhaps he was tired and lost concentration. Maybe he wanted to get home in time to watch Duke play in the Final Four. Who's to say?
Not to pile on misery, but let's take a look at what Duke baseball got to watch when they got back to Durham.
North Carolina is back in action on Tuesday with a midweek game at Elon. Enjoy the national championship game tomorrow in peace, now that Duke is safely out of the tournament!