Players-Only Meeting Set Table For Tar Heel Bats to Roar Back

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Baseball, it’s a fickle game, but that’s the beauty of it. On any given night — like last week at Boshamer Stadium — teams, even ones as talented as North Carolina, can turn in performances that resemble the Bad News Bears.

Three days removed from a 22-run, 18-hit offensive explosion in which the Tar Heels looked like the 1940s Bronx Bombers, North Carolina followed it up with the complete opposite kind of showing. So much so that team captain Gavin Gallaher called a hitters-only meeting the next day.

En route to a 12-2 defeat at the hands of No. 8 Coastal Carolina on April 28 — UNC’s first midweek loss of the season — the Tar Heels were limited to two runs on six hits and two walks while striking out 10 times — a highly uncharacteristic performance for a lineup that ranks 31st nationally in scoring offense at 8.2 runs per game and owns the nation’s 27th-best on-base percentage at .415.

“Just talked about how to be a tougher out,” Tar Heel catcher Macon Winslow said when asked about the meeting. “It felt like we were giving away at-bats a little bit in the Coastal (Carolina) game, and part of that is just because we needed to buy more into the approach and stay committed while we’re hunting at the plate.”

Winslow didn’t divulge exactly what was said behind closed doors, but whatever message was delivered clearly struck a nerve.

Sunday afternoon against Duke — UNC’s first game since the loss to Coastal — the Tar Heels wasted little time putting their offensive struggles behind them, hanging six runs on the board in the bottom of the first inning.

Nine days earlier, Peter Lemke stifled the Tar Heels in Durham, tossing 7.2 innings of one-run baseball on 101 pitches while allowing five hits to help hand UNC a 3-1 loss in game two of the three-game set.

Lemke got the ball again Sunday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium, but this time to a much different tune. The Blue Devils right-hander allowed seven of the eight batters he faced to reach base, recording one out on 35 pitches before getting the hook while being charged with all six first-inning runs.

“We thought the first three (innings) against their starter started last Friday, barreled him up pretty good,” Winslow said. “Throughout the game, we kind of got more passive within the at-bats, and that’s when he got a lot of his ground balls.”

Five days removed from the struggles vs. Coastal, the Tar Heels erupted for 13 runs on 11 hits — including four for extra bases — while drawing four walks and cutting their strikeout total in half, punching out five times.

Pitt comes to Boshamer Stadium this weekend for North Carolina’s final regular-season home series, and the matchup provides another opportunity for the Tar Heels’ offense to build momentum. The Panthers enter the weekend on a four-game skid in which their pitching staff has surrendered an average of 9.25 runs per game. Game one is set for 6 p.m. Friday night.