Tar Heel baseball capitalizes on St. John’s mistakes

In the scorebooks it’ll go down as a two-run single, but with a little less sunlight and a little more outfield communication, Colin Moran likely would’ve been out.

It was the bottom of the second inning Tuesday when Moran’s high-flying pop-up touched grass between a triangle of St. John’s defenders.

By no means was it a pretty piece of hitting, but it was just enough to achieve the desired result. It was, in essence, a microcosm of North Carolina’s afternoon.

The No. 6 Tar Heels (6-1) didn’t tear the cover off the ball Tuesday, but in their 8-4 win against St. John’s, they put just enough runners on to do some damage.

“We’ve just been piecing it all together,” Moran said. “Just moving from guy to guy in the lineup. There hasn’t just been one guy. Everyone’s contributed.”

On Tuesday, every Tar Heel starter reached base in some shape or form, drawing 10 walks and scattering bloops, dribblers and the occasional rocket across the diamond for 13 hits.

“I really thought we were locked in at the plate early,” coach Mike Fox said. “We had five strikeouts and 10 walks. (St. John’s) hurt themselves a little bit in that regard, but we looked at the ball good.”

After catcher Jacob Stallings drove in a run in the top of the first with a clean single up the middle, two walks set up Moran’s bloop two-run single in the second.

“I wasn’t too happy when I hit it,” Moran said. “But I’ll take anything I can get, really. Anything that can help us get on the board and help us win.”

For a moment, it seemed that three-run padding would be enough for freshman starting pitcher Benton Moss, who dazzled through his first three innings of work.

But St. John’s rallied in the fourth to knock Moss out of the game, and the Red Storm continued to keep pressure on the Tar Heels, narrowing the score to 5-4 in the eighth inning.

In the bottom of that frame, though, UNC drove its hardest-hit ball of the contest.

With the bases loaded, junior Cody Stubbs powered the ball to the wall in left field, allowing three insurance runs to score as the ball went in and out of the lunging left fielder’s glove.

For the Tar Heels, it was just the second extra-base hit of the day. The first, by Matt Roberts, was a borderline error by the third baseman as it just squeaked under his glove.

Regardless, those opportunities were facilitated by the offense’s patient approach and pass-the-baton mentality.

The Tar Heels kept the basepaths clogged, and though they were aided by a few fortuitous bounces and some less-than-stellar glovework, it’s the overall result that ultimately matters.

“You can’t control how the other team plays, so if they want to miscommunicate and drop a fly ball, we’ll take it,” Fox said. “We don’t get many of those … But we took advantage of it, and we got a little lucky.

“I’d rather be lucky than good sometimes.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.