CHAPEL HILL - After a poor start to the season, the baseball team had seemingly righted its ship of late, improving its play and coming away with victories against ACC powers Georgia Tech and Clemson.
This weekend, that ship ran itself straight into a Tar Heel storm and wiped out in three straight lopsided affairs, 21-3, 7-4 and 8-0, in a weekend series at Boshamer Stadium.
"We expected big things coming into this series," coach Steve Traylor said. "We had been playing well lately, and we were definitely making strides as a team. But we just had very poor execution. I felt it was our worst series of the year; we played very lackadaisical."
The error column on the scoreboard told the story better than any words Traylor could have used. For the series, the Blue Devils (22-25, 2-14 in the ACC) committed a whopping 10 errors, leading to a staggering 13 unearned runs for the Tar Heels (37-9, 11-7). The Tar Heels, meanwhile, were nearly flawless with the glove, making only two miscues in the three games.
"[Carolina] made all the routine plays and some spectacular ones," Traylor said. "We missed some routine plays and didn't even come close to making the spectacular play. We probably gave them 40 outs every game with the plays we didn't make and the double plays we didn't turn."
In Sunday's series finale, poor defense bit
Two pitches later, clean-up hitter Ryan Earey belted a three-run shot over the left-field fence to give the Tar Heels and starter Mike Bynum all the offense they needed.
In the next inning, Carolina put runners on first and second and DH Ryan Mathews lifted a fly ball to right field. Dave Mason ran under the ball and got his glove on it but couldn't corral it, allowing UNC's fourth run to cross the plate.
"We didn't play very well defensively," shortstop Vaughn Schill said. "It's not just the physical errors, but we made mental errors as well."
Although the Tar Heels scored five runs before Capuano got the fourth out of the game, the lefthander settled down and got into a groove, striking out seven of eight hitters at one point. Capuano had his high-location pitches working, as none of the 20 outs he recorded came on a ground ball.
But while Capuano labored through the UNC order, his counterpart Bynum pitched the game from a rocking chair, scattering six hits-all singles-and allowing only one base runner to advance to third base in his eight innings of work.
"We knew offense was going to be a struggle," Traylor said. "Carolina has one of the best pitching staffs in the country, but we just didn't make plays to help our pitchers."
In Friday's series opener, a team of nine Gold Glovers in the field might not have been enough to keep the score close. The Tar Heels laced 24 hits, including eight doubles, a triple and four homers, and outscored Duke three touchdowns to a field goal.
Duke pitchers Brad Dupree, Tyler Lang and John Benik all received the same rough treatment from the UNC hitters, each giving up at least six hits and seven runs.
Saturday, the Blue Devils trotted out ace Stephen Cowie and received a solid seven-inning outing from the righthander. But Duke's five errors in the field, including two from Cowie himself, buried it in a 7-1 hole before Conrey's three-run homer in the ninth made the score close.
"Everyone on the team was very optimistic heading into the series; we thought we had a chance in the first two games and anything can happen Sunday," Schill said. "We thought we had put our poor play behind us, but we just didn't play well at all this weekend."
The Blue Devils take the field against High Point Wednesday at historic Jack Coombs Field before hosting N.C. State for a three-game series next weekend.
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