By R.L. Bynum

CHAPEL HILL — Getting swept in a late April ACC series is discouraging for No. 18 North Carolina, but the memory of last season gives the Tar Heels hope that they can still achieve plenty this season.

No. 20 Boston College rallied for a 6–2 victory Sunday at Boshamer Stadium to finish off a sweep of the Tar Heels a year after UNC got swept at Virginia for its fifth consecutive conference series loss.

Typical of the week for Carolina (25–15, 9–10 ACC), the game ended with another failed chance with the bases loaded as Colby Wilkerson hit into an inning-ending double play representing the potential tying run. The Tar Heels are 0 of 18 with the bases loaded in the last four games.

Last season, Carolina surged after the exam break and won the ACC title. Although the recent stretch is frustrating for UNC, the Tar Heels have two more wins than the did through 40 games last season and a better ACC winning percentage (47.3% vs. 40%).

“We were dead in the water, let’s just be honest, last year, and everybody thought we sucked except us,” Forbes said. “And that’s the most important trait any team can have. And these guys have to believe in themselves.”

Although believing is important, Forbes said that his team has to execute better and players have to step up as the Tar Heels did a year ago.

“I don’t really want to talk about last year because every team’s different,” Forbes said. “But you can use it for the guys who have been through it.”

Forbes announced Saturday that junior right-hander Connor Bovair would return to the Friday starter role he occupied for part of last season and Max Carlson would go to the bullpen. But Forbes didn’t sound like a coach ready to shake up his lineup too much.

“As a leader, you have to be careful making too many changes when you fail because this team can succeed and we have succeeded,” Forbes said. “So, we’ll step back and look at it and see what we can do to help them succeed.”

UNC, which will likely fall out of the national rankings for the first time this season, has been in nearly every game in even though it lost the last two series. Issues from either starting pitching or the bullpen have created challenges of late and the offense sputtered a bit Sunday.

“We got beat in every aspect of the game this weekend — pitching, defense, timely hitting. When you play a good team, that happens,” Forbes said. “If you don’t do those things, and they do them better, that’s the result you get. So we’ll go back to the drawing board, go back to work. See if we can improve on it.”

Carolina pitchers walked 21 batters in the series, which fueled many scoring chances this weekend for BC (27–12, 12–9).

“You can’t do that,” Forbes said of all the walks. “I think we have to be careful pointing fingers because it’s not just the pitching.”

After giving up a Cameron Leary RBI single, UNC starter Jake Knapp (top photo) escaped a bases-loaded one-out jam without further damage in a 38-pitch first inning. The junior right-hander did an amazing job, giving up five hits and two runs with four strikeouts in 4⅓ innings with a season-high 97 pitches.

“Knapp was just pitching off guts,” Forbes said. “Couldn’t command his off-speed [pitch], walked some guys but gave us a legitimate chance to win.”

Carolina finally broke through on BC starter John West with three consecutive hits to start the fourth inning. Vance Honeycutt led off with a bunt single, then Tomas Frick doubled to right to end a 13-pitch at-bat. Hunter Stokely, who was 3 for 4 with two RBI, punched a single to left field to score both for his career-tying 25th RBI to give UNC a brief lead.

Knapp came out with one out in the fifth inning, one batter after Joe Vetrano’s leadoff double. Vetrano stole third and scored on Leary’s sacrifice fly off right-handed reliever Matt Poston to tie it at 2.

BC loaded the bases with two hits and a walk to start the seventh inning. With one out, right-hander Matt Matthijs gave up consecutive RBI singles and a sacrifice fly before ending the inning with a strikeout, as the Eagles took a 5–2 lead.

Travis Honeyman launched a homer to left off Matthijs to pad BC’s lead.

NOTES — Carolina only has three Tuesday games, over the next three weeks, and one home series left (the May 11–13 games against N.C. State) on home schedule. The Tar Heels play host to UNCW at 6 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN3) before a three-game set at Virginia Tech next weekend, starting on Friday. … The Seahawks (24–14) beat Delaware on Sunday 12–4 to finish a three-game sweep. The Hokies (23–20, 10–10 ACC) won two of three this weekend at Florida State, losing 4–3 Sunday. … The Tar Heels lead the all-time series with Boston College 31–6.