Clemson errors open the door for Tar Heels

Looking to advance the North Carolina runners in hopes of extending the Tar Heels’ 5-3 lead against Clemson on Friday, Jesse Wierzbicki laid down a sacrifice bunt.

Although, it wasn’t really a sacrifice at all.

With no Tar Heel outs in the bottom of the fifth inning at Boshamer Stadium, the senior first baseman took off running once the ball rolled to the feet of Clemson pitcher David Haselden.

It should have been an easy out. But thanks to a throwing error, Wierzbicki made it safely to first and loaded the bases.

North Carolina had four hits and six runs in the fifth inning, successfully capitalizing on Clemson miscues and cruising to a 13-3 victory. The Tigers committed five errors during the three-game series, and UNC took full advantage of each one en route to its third consecutive ACC sweep.

Knowing from experience how frustrating errors can be, UNC coach Mike Fox was sympathetic. But he didn’t mind the help.

“They’ve had some injuries … so they’ve got a lot of guys out of position,” Fox said Sunday. “They walked a couple guys and it seemed like every time they made an error, we did capitalize off it. That’s really how we won the game today, I think. They opened the door for us some.”

UNC pitchers have struggled to start strong so far this season, and the Tigers jumped to an early lead in all three games during the series. But on Saturday and Sunday, all the Tar Heels needed to catch up was a little focus — and Clemson mistakes.

Heading into the fifth inning in the second game of the series, Clemson and North Carolina were tied at two. Outfielder Ben Bunting drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the inning for the Tar Heels.

After stealing second base and advancing to third on a Levi Michael single, the outfielder was in perfect position to take the lead for the Tar Heels. A throwing error by Tigers’ third baseman Richie Shaffer handed Bunting his opportunity.

“A lot of the errors they made were on tough plays, where they were just trying to maybe do too much,” Michael said. “But definitely, when you have a break like that, try and get a little momentum started and it can lead to a big inning. So it definitely helped us in the long run.”

Sophomore second baseman Tommy Coyle was surprised at the amount of miscues the No. 17 Tigers had during the weekend.

But as for the Tar Heels’ readiness to capitalize on those mistakes, that couldn’t have been better.

“You’ve got to take advantage of every mistake in this league,” Coyle said. “Luckily we took advantage of a lot of their errors this weekend. It’s all about capitalizing on their mistakes and taking advantage when you can. You can’t really make mistakes and get away with it in this league.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.