UNC baseball falls to Arkansas, 4-3. Tar Heels’ season comes to end in Super Regional
Broadcast officials announced Game 3 of No. 10 seed North Carolina’s Super Regional series against Arkansas was slotted for a 7 p.m. game time Monday on ESPN2 for the right to go to the College World Series.
And when UNC sophomore Patrick Alvarez, who hadn’t delivered an RBI for Carolina since Feb. 20 against Seton Hall, came up with an improbable, two-out RBI in the top of the ninth to put the Tar Heels ahead, it surely felt like the series was headed into the decisive final game.
The Razorbacks had other plans.
Arkansas eliminated the Heels when Brady Slavens capped off a two-run ninth with a walk-off single to right field for a 4-3 win.
“It’s just baseball, it’ll rip your heart out,” said UNC shortstop Danny Serretti. “You can be on top of the world 30 minutes ago (when UNC took the lead) and feel like garbage now.”
Ultimately, Carolina (42-22) just had too much to overcome.
UNC coach Scott Forbes said he got a call late Saturday night and learned that starting first baseman Mac Horvath had to have an emergency appendectomy. That forced him to revamp the batting lineup — including moving Vance Honeycutt from cleanup to hitting second. And when he used pinch hitters in the seventh, it led to Alvarez and freshman Joe Jaconski entering the game for defense.
Horvath had started every game this season, hit .268, was second on the team with 19 stolen bases, third with 18 home runs, and fourth with 53 RBI.
“My heart sank mostly for Mac, obviously our team, but especially for Mac because I’ve been in his shoes,” Forbes said. “I played college baseball. This is what you work for, to play in a game like that. And I know how badly he missed it. But a credit to our guys that you know still gave us a chance to win that game with that one of our best players.”
Two weather delays lasted 1:46 and 1:08, respectively, and both came when it appeared Carolina had some momentum. They occurred when lightening strikes were seen within an eight mile radius, despite not one drop of rain ever falling at Boshamer Stadium.
“It’s tough, especially when you look outside and it’s not raining so you think you’d be playing,” UNC reliever Davis Palermo said. “That first one we definitely had some momentum coming back in and may have the second one as well. But I mean, we can’t control the weather. It’s just the way it is.”
The first stoppage came after UNC starting pitcher Brandon Schaeffer worked his way out of a bases loaded jam in the second inning. The second one happened after Honeycutt saved a sure run in the bottom of the seventh with a full sprint and a diving catch leaving a runner stranded at second keeping the game tied at 2.
“Slaven caught a piece of it and it was just up in the air for a little bit too long,” Honeycutt said. “I thought being able to hold them was important. And then we scratched one. At the end of the day, they got us in the ninth.”
Carolina turned in big plays in the field to keep the Razorbacks from taking the lead. In the bottom of the eighth, Serretti turned a double play when he composed himself after fielding a grounder from Robert Moore to tag second and make the throw in time to first.
But the Heels couldn’t come up with a stop in the ninth.
Palermo, who is normally UNC’s closer, entered the game in the sixth inning. Forbes said their bullpen had been battling different injuries and Palermo was best positioned to go deep. Given the second weather delay came after he entered the game, he seemed to show signs of fatigue once the ninth began.
The Razorbacks loaded the bases with no outs against Palermo. He gave way to Caden O’Brien and their penchant to get out of jams finally ended.
“We’ve been fighting some nicks and bruises and guys have had to step up in different roles,” Forbes said. “But we felt like with Davis having all that rest he was going to have to give us three or four innings and daggum if he didn’t almost do that.”
Sophomore Johnny Castagnozzi started 51 of the Heels’ first 63 games this season, but made his first collegiate start at third base. Forbes said he had a comfort level using Castagnozzi because he played third a lot last summer in the Cape Cod league.
Arkansas almost seemed like that tried to test him in the bottom of the fourth. Right fielder Chris Lanzilli hit a line drive to third with a runner on first that Castagnozzi cleanly backhanded. He got the runner out at second, but UNC didn’t turn a double play when second baseman Colby Wilkerson appeared to have a hitch in his throw to first base.
That would come back to hurt the Heels.
Lanzilli scored the game’s first run from first base when Jalen Battles ripped a line drive right at Castagnozzi that came at him so fast, he was unable to make a play. The ball raced to left field giving Battles a double and the Razorbacks a 1-0 lead.
Brandon Webb made it 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth, and the way Arkansas’ pitching staff had stifled Carolina at the plate, it seemed that might be enough.
The Heels didn’t have a runner in scoring position until the top of the sixth inning. But with runners on first and second, starting pitcher Will McEntire got Serretti to fly out to left. Reliever Cole Ramage then got UNC’s Alberto Osuna, who had two hits off McEntire, to pop out on a foul ball that Arkansas first baseman Peyton Stovall caught just over the covered opening for one of ESPN’s cameras.
The Heels finally broke through in the seventh inning with a bit of an unconventional rally.
Mikey Madej extended his hitting streak to 16 games with a leadoff single up the middle and Tomas Frick reached after being hit by a pitch. Castagnozzi laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved both into scoring positions.
Arkansas called on freshman reliever Brady Tygart, who throws a fastball that registers in the mid-90 miles per hour, to shut the threat down.
Pinch hitter Eric Grintz hit a grounder that returned to the mound, but ended up rolling to second on a ricochet. It scored Madej scored and moved Frick to third.
Frick tied the game at 2 for Carolina when Tygart threw a wild pitch in the dirt and it bounced past catcher Michael Turner.
“To no surprise, we fought to the end and that’s something this team has done from the first pitch we played all season and that’s why they got us all to this point,” Forbes said. “...It hurts to come up a little bit short, but I feel great about University of North Carolina and our baseball program.”
This story was originally published June 12, 2022 at 7:44 PM.