#2 UNC Baseball has a weekend mostly off after a loss to #9 Coastal Carolina

North Carolina pitcher Walker McDuffie (40) prepares to hurl the pitch against Arizona late in the Super regionals game held in Chapel Hill, N .C. on June 7, 2025. The North Carolina Tar Heels and the Arizona Wildcats met in game two of the NCAA Division 1 Super Regionals in Chapel Hill, N.C. on June 7, 2025. | Steven Worthy / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Diamond Heels of UNC remained at #2 in the rankings for the second straight week, but the team seems a little more vulnerable now than they did this time last week, when they were coming off a series win against Georgia Tech. They held serve against Duke over the weekend with a 2-1 series win, but an underwhelming performance in the second-game loss made it taste just a little sour. It did not help matters that in this week’s midweek action, the Heels lost their first midweek game of the season in emphatic fashion as Coastal Carolina came to Boshamer Stadium and absolutely knocked them around in a 12-2 rout.

Jackson Rose was given the start against the Chanticleers but was pulled pretty early after it became clear that he didn’t quite have what he needed; it took him nearly 50 pitches to get 5 outs. Walker McDuffie came in to limit the damage to just 1 run to Rose’s name, and proceeded to shoved for four innings. He got some run support with a Cooper Nicholson 2-run homer in the bottom of the second, but the UNC bats couldn’t do much more as we got a pitchers’ duel into the sixth. McDuffie gave up a couple of RBI hits in the sixth to give Coastal the lead back, and after a quick 1-2-3 inning for UNC’s offense, the wheels fell off. Matthew Matthijs took over from McDuffie and immediately gave up a double, a bunt single, and an RBI double, so he was pulled without recording an out. Folger Boaz, who did not start against Duke, gave up an RBI single and a free base via wild pitch, so Scott Forbes took him out as well. Cam Seagraves finally recorded the first out of the inning, albeit via sac bunt, before he gave Coastal run via wild pitch followed by a walk and a single, at which point it was Cam Padgett’s turn. Coastal got Seagraves’ runners across, but Padgett managed an infield out and a strikeout to finally get out of a nightmare 7th in which Coastal scored 6 runs.