By R.L. Bynum

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina got just the sort of feel-good win it needed to flush away a frustrating weekend with an offensive assault against UNCW.

With a pair of three-run homers and the most RBI by a Tar Heel in 19 years, Mac Horvath drove home a point in more ways than one.

After Boston College swept the Tar Heels to knock them out of the D1 Baseball Top 25, they took their frustrations out on the Seahawks in an 18–2 laugher Tuesday at Boshamer Stadium.

Horvath, who called a player’s only meeting Sunday morning, drove in a career-high eight runs to lead the way. It was the most RBI by a Tar Heel since Marshall Hubbard went 5 for 6 and drove in eight against St. Francis on March 5, 2004.

After he and some teammates who texted him saw some joking around after Saturday’s loss to the Eagles, Horvath called the team meeting.

“Not even just Saturday but other games, too,” Horvath said. “People have said stuff, just maybe not as pissed off as we should be.”

Horvath knows how much everybody on the team cares about winning, but he didn’t think that was translating to the right mentality.

“I asked the team why are were here,” Horvath said. “Everyone said, ‘to win.’ I was like, ‘if we don’t win, then what’s so funny about that? Why we’re joking around after a game [that’s a loss]?’ So, I think everyone is now on board with that. Just try to keep everyone together, talking about what great teams have.”

The team made a list of the qualities that great teams have.

“[We] went down that list, and we didn’t have a lot of those things right now,” said Horvath, who hopes Tuesday’s game is the start of a different attitude for the rest of the season.

UNC coach Scott Forbes didn’t even know about the meeting until his wife told him later Sunday that it was mentioned on the ESPN+ broadcast.

“That’s great,” Forbes said of Horvath’s initiative. “That’s part of being a leader, and that’s something he needed to do. I’m sure that that has helped us big-time.”

The combination of being upset about getting swept and Horvath’s message made a big difference against UNCW.

If the meeting wasn’t enough, Forbes challenged the team in practice on Monday.

“I thought our guys responded like I expected them to,” Forbes said. “It’s an older group that has been through with it — they went through it last year. Sometimes a kick in the face can just piss you off. And there’s a difference between playing tight and angry and playing like you got something to prove.”

Forbes told his players that they stepped into a hornet’s nest against Boston College.

” ‘They come out and they’re going to sting the heck out of you,’ ” Forbes told his team. ” ‘So we’ve been stepped on. We’re gonna come out and fly away, or we’re going to sting somebody.’ “

Sting they did.

UNC (26–15) played with plenty of resolve, scoring in the first four innings to take a 13-run lead. The Heels topped their best previous run total of the season in a 17–7 mid-March win at Pittsburgh. It was the most UNC runs since the 19–8 NCAA regionals win last season over VCU.

Forbes returned Vance Honeycutt to the leadoff spot and placed Casey Cook, who has led off for a few weeks, in the three hole.

“I felt really good about moving him back,” Forbes said. “Now Vance is hot again, and he has that bat and that dynamic. If he gets on base, he can do something that Casey Cook can’t do.”

Jackson Van De Brake also had three hits. Six pitchers combined to give up only six hits and two runs with 10 strikeouts.

After UNCW (24–15) became the fifth consecutive UNC opponent to score in the first inning (Tanner Thach’s RBI single), the first four Tar Heels reached base in a five-run first inning and it quickly became a rout. Van De Brake’s RBI double jump-started the flurry, with Horvath blasting a 344-foot shot to left for a three-run homer and Alberto Osuna launching a 407-foot drive to center for a solo home run.

Horvath added a 424-foot three-run shot to left-center in the second.

“That’s a good team over there,” Forbes said. “We punched them in the mouth first, but I felt like our guys were clearing their minds and not playing like, what if we lose? I felt like they just played today.”

UNC starter Dalton Pence (winner, 3-1) gave up four hits and a run while striking out four in two innings.

Junior right-hander Max Carlson, who lost the Friday starter role last weekend, came out of the bullpen for the first time in 36 career starts. After retiring UNCW in order in the third, he gave up a long solo homer down the left-field line to Alec DeMartino in the fourth. That was the 12th homer this season against Carlson, who gave up 13 combined in his first two seasons, but it was the only hit he gave up in two innings.

Pitching in his first game since April 7, junior right-hander Ben Peterson tossed two hitless, shutout innings with one strikeout.

“I felt good out there,” said Peterson, who said he has been working on making his fastball a two-seamer and also developing a cutter. “Basically, the same motion but just with different grips on the fastball, and so it goes from an average metric fastball with good velocity to good velocity with good metrics on both sides of the plate.”

“I felt like Ben Peterson went out there and pitched like he had something to prove,” Forbes said. “That’s important when you haven’t pitched for a while. Ben’s a worker. He’s kept his nose down, being a good teammate, and he will be big for us coming out of the bullpen.”

After extending their hitless streak with the bases loaded to 0 for 19 in the third inning, the Tar Heels ended that five-plus games streak in the fourth inning. Back-to-back bases-loaded singles from Hunter Stokely and Osuna got a six-run inning going.

Horvath kept the positive streak going with a two-run sixth-inning single with the bases loaded.

Carolina freshman Carter French doubled for his first college hit in the ninth inning off Thach, who started the game at first base.

NOTES — UNC begins a three-game series Friday at 7 p.m. (ESPN3) at Virginia Tech. The Hokies (24–14, 10–19) beat James Madison 7–5 Tuesday night. … Carolina fell out of the D1 Baseball Top 25 poll after Boston College, now No. 11, swept the Tar Heels last weekend. UNC is 2–11 against teams in the current poll — No. 3 South Carolina (0–1), No. 6 Coastal Carolina (0–1), BC (0–3), No. 12 ECU (0–2), No. 13 Virginia (1–2) and No. 16 Miami (1–2). Three of UNC’s remaining four nonconference games are against ranked teams. Two of those games are next week, at home against No. 9 Campbell on May 2 and at ECU on May 3. UNC also visits Coastal Carolina on May 16. … Cook, a redshirt freshman, reached base for the 30th consecutive game to become the third UNC freshman to do that since 1999. Colin Moran (37 straight in 2011) and Adam Greenberg (31 straight in 2000) are the others. … Tuesday ended a nine-game homestand, the longest since the start of the 2020 season. … Outfielder Patrick Alvarez had hamate surgery Friday, and Forbes hopes he might be back in a couple of weeks. … Horvath is the second player in the country with at least 16 home runs and 15 steals. Morehead State’s Ryley Preece has 17 and 17 … UNCW gave up double-digit runs for the ninth time this season, but UNC bettered TCU’s total in a 17-2 win over the Seahawks on April 15. … Carolina has won six consecutive games against the Seahawks and leads the all-time series 64–16, including 39–8 at Boshamer Stadium. … UNC is 17–3 in nonconference home games this season.