By R.L. Bynum

Without star center fielder Vance Honeycutt and a rough outing for right-hander Max Carlson, it was a long night in Clemson for North Carolina.

The No. 7 Tigers scored six runs of Carlson in the first two innings and rolled to a 14–7 victory Thursday over the Tar Heels at Doug Kingsmore Stadium for their 10th consecutive victory. UNC didn’t go down quietly, though, scoring four runs and getting six of its 15 hits in the ninth inning.

UNC’s hopes of winning the ACC Coastal Division title ended with the loss, but the Tar Heels (33–20, 14–12 ACC) will try to rebound Friday night and Saturday to improve their NCAA resume. Carolina will have to play better defense after committing four errors in the opener.

Honeycutt is dealing with a lower-body injury and is day-to-day, leading Mac Horvath to start in center field. Horvath went 0 for 3 to have his career-high 10-game hitting streak snapped.

Carlson (4–2) gave up a career-high 10 hits in 3⅔ innings, giving up six runs and walking two while striking out two.

Clemson (37–17, 18–10) jumped out to a lead with two outs in the first inning when Will Taylor beat out an infield single, then Cayden Grice hit a two-run home run to right field. The Tigers made a rout of it with four runs in the second inning on three singles, a double and two Carolina errors.

Third baseman Johnny Castagnozzi cut UNC’s deficit in half with a two-run homer run to center field in the fourth and an RBI single in the fifth.

UNC could come no closer, and finished the game without using its top relievers.

Clemson DH Billy Amick led off the fifth inning with a solo home run off UNC reliever Kyle Percival, who gave up four hits and four runs (three earned) with two strikeouts in one inning.

Tigers third baseman Blake Wright hit a three-run homer in the five-run sixth inning and a two-run home run in the eighth inning, both off Carolina reliever Will Sandy.

Sandy pitched the final three innings, giving up three hits, three runs and three walks while striking out four. It was his longest outing since going 3⅔ innings against Seton Hall on Feb. 18.

Carolina sent 10 batters to the plate in the ninth inning and scored four runs on Carter French’s RBI single, Reece Holbrook’s RBI groundout, a Clemson error and Patrick Alvarez’s RBI single.

It was Alvarez’s first game since fracturing his left hamate bone on April 13.

NOTES — A pair of right-handers start Friday’s second game, which streams on ESPN3 at 6 p.m., with UNC junior Jake Knapp (4–3, 4.78 ERA) opposing Clemson sophomore Austin Gordon (1–4, 4.72 ERA). In Saturday’s 1 p.m. finale (ACC Network), Clemson will start junior left-hander Caden Grice (6–1, 3.60 ERA) and Carolina hasn’t named a starter. … Redshirt freshman right fielder Casey Cook walked twice to extend his on-base streak to 41 games. … Clemson pushed its advantage in the all-time series with UNC to 103–96–1, including 51–32–1 in games at Clemson. … UNC had won the previous four meetings. … Carolina fell to 5–15 in games against teams currently ranked in the D1 Baseball Top 25.

No. 7 Clemson 14, UNC 7

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ACC standings

Coastal Division

	ACC	GB	Overall	Streak
No. 21 Virginia	19–11	—	44–11	W9
No. 11 Miami	18–12	1	37–18	W2
No. 16 Duke	16–13	2½	35–19	L2
North Carolina	14–14	4	33–21	L4
Virginia Tech	12–17	6½	30–21	W1
Georgia Tech	12–18	7	30–24	L4
Pittsburgh	10–18	8	23–30	L3

Atlantic Division

	ACC	GB	Overall	Streak
No. 1 Wake Forest	22–7	—	45–9	L1
No. 7 Clemson	20–10	2½	39–17	W12
No. 22 Boston College	16–14	6½	34–17	W2
Notre Dame	15–15	7½	30–22	L3
N.C. State	13–16	9	34–18	W3
Louisville	10–20	12½	31–24	L2
Florida State	9–21	13½	23–31	W2

Thursday’s results
No. 7 Clemson 14, UNC 7
N.C. State 7, Pittsburgh 2
No. 1 Wake Forest 6, Virginia Tech 3
No. 21 Virginia 12, Georgia Tech 5
Notre Dame 5, Boston College 1
No. 16 Duke 5, No. 11 Miami 3
Louisville 7, Florida State 4
Friday’s results
No. 7 Clemson 5, UNC 4
Boston College 7, Notre Dame 2
Boston College 8, Notre Dame 4
N.C. State 17, Pittsburgh 8
No. 1 Wake Forest 7, Virginia Tech 5
No. 21 Virginia 10, Georgia Tech 6
Florida State 7, Louisville 4
No. 11 Miami 10, No. 16 Duke 8, 11 innings
Saturday’s games
No. 21 Virginia 8, Georgia Tech 7
No. 7 Clemson 3, UNC 1
N.C. State 8, Pittsburgh 2
Florida State 6, Louisville 2
Virginia Tech 14, No. 1 Wake Forest 6
No. 11 Miami 10, No. 16 Duke 1
END REGULAR SEASON
ACC tournament at Durham Bulls Athletic Park
May 23–28

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Date	Month/day	Score	Opponent (current rank)	Location	Record
	Feb.
17	Friday	10–8 L	Seton Hall	Home	0–1
18	Saturday	11–2 W	Seton Hall	Home	1–1
19	Sunday	4–2 W	Seton Hall	Home	2–1
21	Tuesday	14–2 W	Radford	Home	3–1
22	Wed.	10–0 W	Longwood	Home	4–1
24	Friday	6–5 L	No. 15 East Carolina	Greenville	4–2
26	Sunday	6–5 L	No. 15 East Carolina	Home	4–3
28	Tuesday	10–4 W	VCU	Home	5–3
	March
1	Wed.	14–10 W	VCU	Home	6–3
3	Friday	3–2 W 11 innings	Stony Brook	Home	7–3
4	Saturday	7–5 W	Stony Brook	Home	8–3
5	Sunday	15–4 W	Stony Brook	Home	9–3
7	Tuesday	8–4 W, 5 innings	Western Carolina	Home	10–3
8	Wed.	15–5 W	Penn State	Home	11–3
10	Friday	7–3 L	No. 11 Virginia	Home	11–4, 0–1 ACC
11	Saturday	8–4 L	No. 11 Virginia	Home	11–5, 0–2 ACC
11	Saturday	6–0 W	No. 11 Virginia	Home	12–5, 1–2 ACC
14	Tuesday	16–3 W	Charlotte	Charlotte	13–5
15	Wed.	16–2 W	High Point	Home	14–5
17, 18	Friday, Saturday	17–7 W	Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh	15–5, 2–2 ACC
21	Tuesday	6–4 W	N.C. A&T	Home	16–5
23	Thursday	6–3 W	Duke	Home	17–5, 3–2 ACC
24	Friday	8–5 L	Duke	Home	17–6, 3–3 ACC
25	Saturday	5–3 W	Duke	Home	18–6, 4–3 ACC
28	Tuesday	12–7 L	No. 9 Coastal Carolina	Home	18–7
31	Friday	10–8 W	Notre Dame	South Bend, Ind.	19–7, 5–3 ACC
	April
2	Sunday	5–2 W	Notre Dame	South Bend, Ind.	20–7, 6–3 ACC
2	Sunday	9–1 L	Notre Dame	South Bend, Ind	20–8, 6–4 ACC
4	Tuesday	5–0 L	South Carolina	Charlotte	20–9
6	Thursday	8–1 W	Georgia Tech	Atlanta	21–9, 7–4 ACC
7	Friday	10–6 W	Georgia Tech	Atlanta	22–9, 8–4 ACC
7	Friday	8–4 L	Georgia Tech	Atlanta	22–10, 8–5 ACC
11	Tuesday	10–6 W	Queens	Home	23–10
13	Thursday	5–4 L	No. 8 Miami	Home	23–11, 8–6 ACC
14/15	Friday, Saturday	9–8 W, 11 inn.	No. 8 Miami	Home	24–11, 9–6 ACC
15	Saturday	4–3 L	No. 8 Miami	Home	24–12, 9–7 ACC
18	Tuesday	5–3 W	Charlotte	Home	25–12
21	Friday	9–8 L, 10 inn.	Boston College	Home	25–13, 9–8 ACC
22	Saturday	9–4 L	Boston College	Home	25–14, 9–9 ACC
23	Sunday	6–2 L	Boston College	Home	25–15, 9–10 ACC
25	Tuesday	18–2 W	UNCW	Home	26–15
28	Friday	7–0 L	Virginia Tech	Blacksburg, Va.	26–16, 9–11 ACC
29	Saturday	12–8 W	Virginia Tech	Blacksburg, Va.	27–16, 10–11 ACC
29	Saturday	13–7 W	Virginia Tech	Blacksburg, Va.	28–16, 11–11 ACC
	May
2	Tuesday	6–5 L	No. 11 Campbell	Home	28–17
3	Wed.	2–1 W	No. 15 East Carolina	Greenville	29–17
9	Tuesday	5–4 W	Gardner-Webb	Home	30–17
11	Thursday	9–8 W	N.C. State	Home	31–17, 12–11 ACC
12	Friday	9–3 W	N.C. State	Home	32–17, 13–11 ACC
13	Saturday	12–2 W	N.C. State	Home	33–17, 14–11 ACC
16	Tuesday	8–6 L	No. 9 Coastal Carolina	Conway, S.C.	33–18
18	Thursday	14–7 L	No. 3 Clemson	Clemson, S.C.	33–19, 14–12 ACC
19	Friday	5–4 L	No. 3 Clemson	Clemson, S.C.	33–20, 14–13 ACC
20	Saturday	3–1 L	No. 3 Clemson	Clemson, S.C.	33–21, 14–14 ACC
			ACC tournament
23	Tuesday	11–5 W	Georgia Tech	Durham	34–21
25	Thursday	10–2 W	No. 11 Virginia	Durham	35–21
27	Saturday	10–4 L	Semifinal vs. No. 3 Clemson	Durham	35–22
	June		NCAA tournament
			Terre Haute Regional
2	Friday	5–4 L	Iowa	Terre Haute, Ind.	35–23
3	Saturday	5–0 W	Wright State	Terre Haute, Ind.	36–23
4	Sunday	6–5 L, 13 innings	Iowa	Terre Haute, Ind.	36–24

Photo via @ClemsonBaseball