Heading into this weekend, the Boston College Eagles rode the high of their second multigame winning streak, a steamroller coming off a Beanpot victory of UMass. They traveled south with the benefit of having swept Georgia Tech, ready to compete with another Coastal Division rival in North Carolina. With a big weekend, the Eagles could've come home in the driver's seat for a decent seed in the ACC Tournament, possibly on the inside track to the NCAA Tournament.
Well then.
North Carolina defeated BC for a third straight day on Sunday, limiting the Eagle bats to another rudderless display in a 6-0 victory. The loss assured BC of coming home in last place of the Atlantic Division, now on the outside looking in of the conference tournament picture.
Benton Moss (6-0) dominated for UNC, going eight innings while allowing only a single to Johnny Adams in the top of the third and a single by Logan Hoggarth in the top of the eighth. He did walk two but struck out six, facing 27 batters while throwing 105 pitches - nearly 75% of which were strikes. At one point, Moss recorded nine outs in a row from the third through the sixth. He rallied to get five more in a row in the sixth and seventh.
Tyler Thornton pitched the ninth, walking one and not allowing a hit while inducing three flyouts to end the game.
Boston College's defense struggled mightily against the Tar Heels, committing four errors en route to three unearned runs. It wouldn't be the difference, as UNC recorded what would be the game-winning runs early in the second inning when Korey Dunbar hit a 1-0 offering over the left field wall to score Tyler Ramirez to make it a 2-0 game.
UNC blew it open in the third. Brian Miller opened up the inning with a single to right, moving over to second two batters later on a single by Landon Lassiter. After Ramirez flew out, Dunbar hit one that Jake Palomaki couldn't handle, loading the bases with two outs. Starting pitcher Jesse Adams, forced to record the proverbial "fourth out" walked Joe Dudek, bringing home Miller to make it 3-0. Logam Warmoth singled the next pitch to left center, plating Dudek and Dunbar. All three runs registered as unearned, and the 5-0 lead gave UNC every bit they would need.
The Tar Heels recorded a sixth run in the ffith when Ramirez homered to right center off Adams.
Adams (2-3) took the loss, giving up all six runs in five innings of work. He gave up five hits, including the two homers, striking out five and walking four. Justin Dunn came on in relief to start the sixth and worked through three innings of no-hit ball, striking out two and walking one while issuing an HBP. He faced two over the minimum.
The Eagles (22-21, 9-14 ACC) are now tasked with playing from behind in the tightly packed conference playoff race. BC fell behind both NC State and Wake Forest this weekend and were passed by Georgia Tech and Virginia. That puts the Eagles back into either 11th or 12th while awaiting the outcome of the rest of the weekend.
Many of the ACC games this weekend were forced into doubleheaders on Sunday due to weather conditions across the Mid-Atlantic on Saturday. BC has six games left in conference play - a three-game series at Virginia Tech before returning home to play Notre Dame.
BC takes on Rhode Island on Tuesday at Beck Field at 3:30 PM.