UNC baseball team wins on walk-off wild pitch

It seemed poetic for the No. 16 North Carolina baseball team — after spending 18 days away from Boshamer Stadium — to be tied in the bottom of the ninth, with the bases loaded and the overhead lights showcasing their home return.

It felt dramatic for junior pinch hitter Skye Bolt and freshman pinch runner Brian Miller to stand at the plate and third base, respectively.

And it was fitting for Wednesday’s game to end in truly chaotic fashion — with a walk-off wild pitch.

In a shocking battle of miscues and momentum shifts, the Tar Heels watched a three-run lead in the ninth inning slip away, only to claim the 6-5 victory on the critical mistake by Virginia Commonwealth (3-6).

“I wasn’t sure it was going to end,” said Miller, who pinch ran for freshman Zach Gahagan from second base. “It was a little shocker. We bring our closers in, and we expect to close the game.

“But I was pretty confident we were going to get the run in.”

Just moments earlier, UNC (8-3) was sitting on a three-run lead with two outs and nobody on base, with sure-handed closer junior Trent Thornton on the mound.

But after the junior allowed consecutive walks — two of UNC’s nine — and a RBI double, Spencer Trayner gave up yet another run-scoring double to allow the Rams to improbably knot up the score.

“When you give another team an extra out and you walk and make errors, you’re generally not going to win the game,” Coach Mike Fox said.

One inning prior, Thornton had come in relief of redshirt junior Chris McCue, who threw a wild pitch before tossing four straight balls.

“Our relievers have got to get better, that’s pretty obvious,” said Fox, who used eight pitchers — including Nick Raquet, who eventually got the win.

“That’s supposed to be the strength of our team, but right now it’s not.”

But it was the Tar Heels’ play in two-out situations that preserved the victory.

In the eighth, a two-out throwing error to first scored a UNC runner and kept the inning alive for a run-scoring shot in the subsequent at-bat.

And in the second inning, sophomore Adam Pate, who started in center field in place of Bolt, kick-started a three-run inning with a timely RBI single up the middle.

“That’s what we pride ourselves in is having a good at-bat and hitting the ball hard with two outs,” Pate said. “I really think that set the tone for the rest of the game until they started getting a rally going.”

But the Rams’ rally wasn’t enough, as UNC mustered just enough key hits to put themselves in a position to win.

“That’s just the way the game went,” said junior Landon Lassiter, whose ninth-inning single put Miller at third and in position for the game-winning run.

“But that’s baseball. Anything can happen.”

sports@dailytarheel.com