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The Daily Tar Heel

Diamond Heels sweep Duke

UNC makes three straight comebacks

Photo: Diamond Heels sweep Duke (Logan Savage)
Men's Baseball vs. Duke Sunday Mar 27

During the first two games of its home series against Duke, the No. 12 North Carolina baseball team fell behind early, but managed to respond with big innings late in the game. The third time, it seemed, would do them harm.

But trailing 6-3 with one out and two runners on base in the bottom of the ninth inning, UNC third baseman Colin Moran conjured a line drive that cleared the right-field fence and erased eight innings of sub-par baseball.

Two innings later, catcher Jacob Stallings hit a chopper over Duke’s drawn-in third baseman to score Tommy Coyle from third, sweeping the Blue Devils with a 7-6, 11-inning victory and extending UNC’s winning streak to nine.

“We just can’t keep climbing from behind,” UNC coach Mike Fox said. “At some point it’s going to run out on you, but we had some magic today. I thought we were really fortunate to win, honestly.”

UNC (23-3, 7-2 ACC) opened the series on its back foot when Friday starter Patrick Johnson arrived at the ballpark without his fastball. The junior struggled to command his heater in the first inning, and gave up four runs abetted by a walk and a hit batsman.

Johnson would slow his delivery and find his form in the second inning, retiring 13 of the final 17 batters he faced to facilitate the first Tar Heel rally of the weekend.

“I was rushing my mechanics, and that’s why everything was above the belt — and it’s a lot easier to hit when everything’s above the belt,” Johnson said. “You have to recuperate. I came in the back and just gathered myself and said, ‘All right, just start over and get going from here.’”

Duke starter Dennis O’Grady was behind in the count all day, and in the fifth inning, the Tar Heels made him pay. O’Grady walked two UNC hitters and allowed the first three of the frame to reach base.

After O’Grady was relieved by Ben Grisz, Brian Holberton smacked a bases-loaded triple beneath the glove of diving left fielder Anthony D’Alessandro as UNC posted a five-spot to grab a 7-4 lead en route to an 8-5 win.

“PJ was on the mound, we knew he wasn’t going to give up any runs, and we knew that kid was hittable,” said Holberton, who replaced the injured Levi Michael in the lineup. “We don’t get down. We know we always have a chance with our lineup.”

Game two was not unlike its predecessor, as UNC starter Kent Emanuel allowed two early runs before settling in to finish with two earned runs in six innings pitched.

The Tar Heels tied the game in the fourth, went ahead 3-2 in the sixth and blew it open with an eight-run eighth in which the returning Michael hit an RBI double. Michael would leave Sunday’s game midway through, when he fouled a ball off his hurt left ankle.

But even after the first two games, Sunday’s contest appeared all-but-over until Moran’s fourth homer in his past five games.

The Blue Devils (15-11, 2-7 ACC) started the day by knocking UNC starter Cody Stiles out of the game after just two innings.

The two teams then engaged in a see-saw battle with UNC tying the game at three in the seventh. Duke got ahead in the eighth when Angelo LaBruna scored after reaching base on a wild third strike and seemed to have the game won after adding a pair of insurance runs on a triple by O’Grady in the ninth.

UNC received a dash more of good fortune in the final half-inning when a throwing error by Grizs on an attempted sacrifice bunt allowed Coyle to go from first to third before Stallings’ game-winning hit.

“It’s college baseball, there’s a lot of people that miss out if they don’t follow it,” Fox said. “Every now and then, there’ll be a game like this.”

Contact the Sports Editor

at sports@dailytarheel.com.

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