"It's obviously very disappointing that we lost," said UNC head coach Mike Fox. "I thought our players played very hard -- not just today but in the whole tournament. We played three close, hard-fought games, and unfortunately, the last two days we didn't come out on the right side."
UNC got to Kyle Bakker early, tagging the Tech ace for five runs on eight hits over the first three innings for an early 5-0 lead. Jeremy Cleveland had an RBI single in the first, Adam Greenberg had a three-run homer in the second, and Ron Braun had an RBI double in the third for the Tar Heels.
Meanwhile, the Yellow Jackets managed just one hit through the first three innings before grabbing four runs on three doubles and a home run in the bottom of the fourth. Victor Menocal took second base to lead off the inning on a two-base fielding error by UNC third baseman Chris Maples, and Jeremy Sladen followed with a two-run shot to right. Tyler Parker and Wes Rynders added RBI doubles to get Tech within 5-4 at the end of the fourth.
Cleveland and Ryan Blake homered in back-to-back at bats to open the fifth inning before Tech pulled Bakker in favor of Jeff Watchko. Watchko got two quick outs, but a two-out single by Chad Prosser and a stolen base put him in scoring position for Greenberg to drive him home with a single to right, as Carolina widened the gap to 8-4.
The Yellow Jackets pulled ahead 9-8 with five runs on three hits and four walks in the bottom of the fifth. UNC went to Carter Harrell out of the bullpen after starter Daniel Moore issued consecutive walks to open the inning. Harrell collected just one out and gave up three hits, two walks and a hit batter.
Michael Gross finally collected the third out of the inning as Tech threatened with the bases loaded.
Tech added a final run in the sixth inning and rode the strong pitching of Watchko to the victory. Watchko (11-1) allowed just one run on six hits over the final five innings for his 11th win of the season. Harrell (8-4) took the loss.
"I give credit to Tech for coming back," Fox said. "We knew they would. They're an outstanding team. We knew we had to pitch well, and it came down to a battle of the bullpens. Theirs was better than ours today."
Greenberg's second-inning home run was his second of the ACC tournament and his 17th of the season, while Cleveland also hit two in the tournament and now has 10 in 2002. Blake added his fifth homer to up UNC's school-record season total to 101.
