CHARLOTTE, N.C.—— The win probability for Tuesday night’s rivalry game in Charlotte probably looked something like the Blue Ridge Mountains, at least until the eighth inning when North Carolina made the graph shoot up to the peak of Mount Mitchell. Just like hiking, the North/South border battle was all about resilience.
The Tar Heels leftTruist Field in Charlotte as winners against South Carolina for the first time in three years. While UNC came out on top of the slugfest, 13-8, the game began with two Gamecock haymakers in the first inning.
Tar Heel starter Cameron Padgett surrendered back-to-back towering long balls from Nathan Hall and Ethan Petry, the big bats in the Gamecocks' lineup. Suddenly, it looked like last week's loss to UConn could be repeated, which would mean another tough pill to swallow.
The UNC offense surged inits 10-run shutout Sunday victory against Boston College,having previously struggled mightily after falling behind early against Stanford and Louisville.
But in the Queen City, something was different.
"Coach [Scott] Forbes used the word resilient, and that's what we showed today," catcher Luke Stevenson said. "They threw some punches. We threw some punches. It shows us that we're able to produce runs and that we can compete offensively and defensively.”
Walker McDuffie relieved Padgett with no outs in the first - Padgett’s third batter Jase Woita laced a double to left. McDuffie, much like the team, had struggled in his ACC appearances thus far, but came out hot in relief. He walked one, then struck out the next three to get the team back in the dugout. After the last swing and miss, Stevenson’s emphatic yell from behind the plate echoed in the stadium.
"I thought early on the story was Walker coming in and limiting that damage," Forbes said.
Tyson Bass, another player who has had to adjust to the level of ACC play, let one rip in the second inning, 380 feet over the left-centerfield fence. Just like that, there was juice. Unlike against UConn, when Kane Kepley began the game with a homer and the offense disappeared thereafter, Bass' long ball was just the beginning.
Stevenson hit his first bomb in the third, a massive 438-foot shot onto Mint Street. Bass followed four batters later with an RBI double to tie the score at three. The Tar Heels had shown up, ready to go toe-to-toe offensively with South Carolina.
Forbes said after that ugly UConn loss last week that he felt like his team was tiptoeing. Are they done with that?
"100 percent," Forbes said.
No tiptoeing around it.
Olin Johnson ran out of the pen to pitch in the third. Forbes and company tried Johnson as a starter as a freshman. It didn't take, and he only logged 16.1 innings last year with two appearances between April and June.
This season, they tried again to start him on the bump, but he only got into the third inning in each try. Then he found his way into the pen. Despite all the losing contests he's found himself in, he's only surrendered one run in the 7.1 innings in relief. The Tar Heels have unlocked a new Olin Johnson.
"He's got all the makings of a starter," Forbes said. "And he struggled (there), he comes to the bullpen and boom, he's just better. And he even told me that, 'Coach, I really like this. Basically, I will start, but I just want you to know that I can be ready every day'."
Johnson retired the side in his first frame, and after the seven-pitch at-bat that ended in a strikeout, he let out a yell, matching Stevenson’s earlier in the game.
"He's a competitive guy," Stevenson said. "But I haven't seen that much emotion from him, but I love it. I love that he got fired up."
Sawyer Black homered in the fifth and the Tar Heels added three more runs in the sixth behind a crucial RBI double by Gavin Gallaher.
The Tar Heels were hitting with the bases loaded. They were hitting with runners in scoring position -- .500 in the two situations. They were hitting in advancement opportunities. All critical pieces of situational hitting that had eluded them in their last few losses. Yes, South Carolina put 12 pitchers on the mound, but the Tar Heel offense found its rhythm.
"We're really starting to get comfortable," Stevenson said. "And a lot of the guys that are starting to get some games under their belts, and I think we're all starting to really mesh well and understand what we're capable of."
But as quickly as they went up, they again found themselves tied with the Gamecocks.
Matthew Matthijs relieved Johnson, struggled, and South Carolina pulled within one. At the end of the seventh, the two teams were tied at eight.
Kane Kepley started the eighth in typical table-setting fashion: drawing a walk. Stevenson then came up to the plate and blasted a 411-foot homer into the netting to right field. He waited a beat to watch the ball carry before rounding the bases.
"It's kind of like my emotions take over," Stevenson said. "But I was just trying to advance the baseball."
It was the final spark UNC needed. The Heels added three more insurance runs that inning and, with stout pitching from Ryan Lynch andFolger Boaz, closed out South Carolina in just under four hours.
The small stories of resilience were exemplified everywhere. Johnson solidified his role as a bullpenweaponwith his three frames of work, a bounce-back after difficulty starting. Boaz closed the game in the same place against the same opponent that he had left a year earlier with a season-ending injury.
Bass extended his hit game streak to eight after he struggled early with D1-level pitching. Luke Stevenson hit his first homers since blasting a pair against UNCW. Not only did he hit them, but he destroyed baseballs with big league exit velocities (110, 109 mph) and over 400 feet on both of them. The entire offense continued its bounce-back trajectory after getting shut out against Stanford and Louisville on those dreadful Sundays earlier in March.
Both the UConn and Saturday’s Boston College losses may have in fact been turning points. It's only been two contests sincethe 3-2 loss in Chestnut Hill but the offensive stats have increased.
"They made a decision after their Saturday loss against Boston College, like 'okay, that's not who we are,'" Forbes said, "We are going to be aggressive. We might make mistakes, but this team has to hang their hat on that type of play."
The aggressiveness and resilience paid off. The Tar Heels hopped on the bus, Chick-fil-A in hand, and drove off into the Charlotte night toward Chapel Hill as border battle victors for the first time since 2021, looking to carry the positive momentum into their fourth ACC series of the season against Miami. First pitch Friday is set for 6 p.m. in Boshamer Stadium.
