Heroic endings are sweet, but defense produces wins consistently.
Offering proof, No. 19 UNC beat Seton Hall in dramatic fashion Friday to win its fifth-straight season opener. Then, the team forgot its fundamentals and lost its next two games, including a 4-3 defeat Sunday, failing to record back-to-back-to-back wins against the Pirates for the first time since 1998.
On Sunday, Pirate Garrett Weir led off the top of the seventh with a double and advanced to third on a Scott Manshack wild pitch. Manshack walked the next two batters before giving up a single to Todd Crawford, scoring two runs and tying the game at three.
With one out in the ninth and the game still tied, the Pirates had runners on first and second. Ed McDonell hit a hard grounder to UNC second baseman Chris Maples, who bobbled the ball and was unable to turn the double play. UNC reliever Scott Senatore threw a wild pitch the next at-bat, allowing the winning run to score.
Saturday, behind four UNC errors, the Pirates (2-1) downed the Tar Heels (1-2) for the first time in 12 tries.
Mike Bascom walked to lead off the eighth for Seton Hall. He was sacrificed to second base, stole third and came home on a throwing error by catcher Ron Braun to tie the game at two. Casey Grimm broke the tie with a two-run single in the 10th to give Seton Hall a 4-2 victory.
"When you're in a close game like this, one play can dictate whether you win or lose," said UNC coach Mike Fox.
Friday, UNC won in dramatic fashion, overcoming Seton Hall leads of 4-1 and 5-4. The latter rally came in the bottom of the ninth, when Braun, 0-for-3 at that point, crushed a three-run, game-winning homer to left, past Boshamer Stadium's new scoreboard.
"Hitting the winning home run was one of the greatest things I have done in my career so far," Braun said. "We were down by three runs, but we didn't hang our heads. We just kept playing hard."
