Tar Heel baseball ends 6-game losing streak

Just take it 20 seconds at a time.

That was North Carolina baseball coach Mike Fox’s advice for his team in the midst of a six-game losing streak. Twenty seconds, about the time between each pitch, is how UNC could turn things around.

“You’ve gotta take this game in really short windows,” Fox said. “When you’re on a losing streak you have a tendency to kinda look too deep at things and look too far ahead.

“We’ve just gotta shorten that window and not worry about what’s next.”

But after the first several 20-second periods, UNC had flopped. Before UNC could set foot in the batter’s box, the Tar Heels trailed UNC-Wilmington 2-0. But in a 9-4 victory, they were able to turn 20 seconds into hits and runs.

Trailing by one heading into the bottom of the fourth after an Adrian Chacon RBI double in the second inning, they loaded the bases with just one out. That’s when Tyler Ramirez stepped up to the plate and ripped a liner right back at the pitcher. In the previous six losses, perhaps that ball is caught. But Tuesday night it careened off the pitcher and dribbled into shallow left field, allowing two Tar Heels to score.

Chacon said the early deficit led to the mentality that allowed UNC to play a complete game.

“We said, ‘OK we’ve got to come ready to go, ready to play,’” Chacon said, “It kept us composed and let us go back, calm down and just take some good swings.”

That turn of events gave UNC its first lead and perhaps gave them a bit of confidence in the box. With a new Seahawk pitcher on the mound, Chacon came to the plate again in the sixth. This time he’d waste no time, and fewer than 20 seconds after stepping in the box he launched the first pitch of the at-bat over the left field wall for a solo home run, his first of the season.

“I thought Adrian Chacon’s home run was really big,” Fox said. “Not playing very much, and then going in there and playing first base in a big game for us. It was big.”

Not to be outdone, sophomore Skye Bolt found some power of his own later in the sixth. Bolt, the stellar center fielder, has struggled as of late, hitting only .200 on the season heading into Tuesday. But he found exactly what he was looking for in the first pitch of his at-bat, bombing a two-run homer that took much fewer than 20 seconds to leave the park over the right field wall to give UNC a 6-2 lead.

Bolt said the process to get back in the swing of things has been to focus on 10 at-bats at a time and improve from there.

“Give yourself a margin to work with,” Bolt said, “And for me it was just stop trying to do more and play the game, let it come to you really. Less is more is my favorite saying.”

UNC held off a late Seahawk charge and stifled the chances of a seventh loss in a row.

UNC was able to add three insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth when Tom Zengel cleared the bases with a three-run double into right field.

And it was over. Six straight games of struggle would not become seven.

And though Fox said nobody was turning cartwheels of celebration in the locker room, Fox didn’t need 20 full seconds after emerging from the locker room to say what was on his mind.

“Yes, it feels good to get a win.”

sports@dailytarheel.com