The No. 1 North Carolina baseball team had never lost a series this season — until taking on Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
After dropping the first game of a three-game series on a walk-off home run, the Yellow Jackets (32-20, 14-13 ACC) took the finale in extra innings. The lone win in the series for the Tar Heels (45-6, 20-5 ACC) came on Saturday after a strong pitching performance from Benton Moss.
Moss said the rest he had coming into the game helped him go eight innings while only giving up two hits.
“It had been about two weeks since I have thrown in a live situation,” Moss said. “Just because of finals and everything, and that was two weeks to work really hard on all of my pitches — especially my fastball command. They definitely benefited me in terms of control.”
Moss praised his team’s effort this weekend — despite the two losses — and said that if anything, the first series loss of the year will make them better.
“No team can be perfect all the time,” he said. “Unfortunately, they just played a bit better ball than we did this weekend.
“Our offense was absolutely crushing balls and they just went right to them. Fifteen feet either way and a couple of the games might have been a little bit different … but hey, it’s baseball.”
Both of Georgia Tech’s wins came by slim margins.
In Friday’s game, the Tar Heels had a 3-0 lead to start the game before allowing the Yellow Jackets to come back and win 5-4 in the bottom of the ninth. Georgia Tech’s Mott Hyde hit a walk-off home run off UNC’s Kent Emanuel, who pitched the entire game.
