Baseball team looks for offense, will play Duke this weekend

This isn’t the team Spencer Trayner remembers from the fall.

There were no easy outs then. The North Carolina freshman reliever would enter an intrasquad game with runners on base and pray he’d leave at least one of them standing there.

But North Carolina’s bats have been scuffling since then, with the Tar Heels (15-9, 5-4 ACC) dropping their last three games and scoring just one run in each of their last two.

They head into a weekend series with Duke (14-12, 4-5 ACC) looking to find their bats and break a four-way tie for second place in the tightly contested Coastal Division.

“This team, in the fall, our hitters when I was pitching, they would no problem put up three runs with two outs off me, and they’re more than capable of doing it,” Trayner said after the Tar Heels fell to Winthrop 3-1 on Wednesday.

“And I know that we will.”

But the Tar Heel offense will face a tough test this weekend against an imposing Duke pitching staff in Durham.

The Blue Devils are tied for second in the conference with a 2.75 ERA, holding opposing lineups to a .232 average.

Their Friday ace, Drew Van Orden (1-2, 4.28 ERA) strikes out nearly a batter per inning, and their Sunday starter, right-hander Michael Matuella, has not yet allowed a base hit or a walk in 10 innings pitched, striking out 19.

The UNC staff is equally as strong, tied with Duke with a 2.75 team ERA, but pitching alone hasn’t been enough for UNC of late, which has left 29 runners on base in its past three games.

“I don’t think there’s just one thing that we can point to,” said catcher Korey Dunbar on his team’s offensive struggles.

“I just think we just got to step our level of play up and bring a lot of energy to the field, and right now, we’re just flat out not doing it.

“We all hold each other accountable, and we got to step it up. We gotta play baseball like we know how to, and right now we’re not.”

As a team, the Tar Heels are batting .258 with a .364 on-base percentage and slugging just .351.

They’ve been paced by a strong freshman season from second baseman Wood Myers and his team-leading .320 batting average, but center fielder Skye Bolt (.197) and third baseman Landon Lassiter (.232) are both in the midst of sophomore slumps.

UNC has had moments of offensive prowess this season, putting together seven-run and nine-run games against a tough Maryland team a couple of weekends ago, for instance.

But the Tar Heels are still looking to reach that kind of production on a consistent basis, and coach Mike Fox said he thinks his team may be trying to force it.

“Hitting’s just kind of one of those things where your team can feel good offensively or they can just press a little bit offensively,” Fox said after Wednesday’s loss.

“And everybody was probably trying a little too hard (Wednesday), and that’s a death sentence when you’re a hitter.”

sports@dailytarheel.com