By R.L. Bynum
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Challenging Carolina pitchers generally hasn’t gone well for opponents, and that didn’t change Saturday.
This time, the umpire questioned the pause in UNC starter Max Carlson’s delivery, but the right-hander took it out on Wright State. There’s no question that this motivated Carlson, who threw 6⅔ one-hit shutout innings as Carolina extended its season with a 5–0 victory Saturday in the Terre Haute Regional at Bob Warn Field over No. 4-seed Wright State.
Left-handed reliever Dalton Pence completed the combined one-hit shutout in a game that included redshirt freshman right fielder Casey Cook’s spectacular home-run stealing catch.
The No. 3-seed Tar Heels (35–23) will play in another elimination game at noon Sunday against No. 2-seed Iowa (ACC Network), which lost Saturday night to No. 1-seed Indiana State 7–4. Wright State’s season ended at 39–23. UNC needs three wins in two days to win the regional.
“Those two guys on the mound were outstanding, and a huge play by Casey Cook,” UNC coach Scott Forbes said. “Preach to these guys all the time the importance of pitching and defense, not giving away outs. I thought we defended really well today, too.”
Junior center fielder Mac Horvath broke out of a 0-for-7, five-strikeout funk with a three-run home run to left field in the seventh inning for his 23rd home run to give the Tar Heels badly needed insurance. Before his blast, UNC was 1 of 7 with runners in scoring position in the game and 1 of 12 for the tournament.
“I had two strikes and I was really just focused on getting my foot down as early as possible, just be on time for fastball and then he left the breaking ball over,” said Horvath, who hit the 116th pitch from Wright State starter Luke Stofel (5–6) over the wall.
Forbes had extended conversations with the umpires about how Carlson’s delivery was being questioned. Pitching coach Bryant Gaines also got into it with the umpires, upset with what had transpired.
“He’s had the same delivery, but I have learned to take a deep breath and talk like I should and just get the explanation,” Forbes said. “At the end of the day, it’s a rule. You’ve got to make the adjustments. You’ve got to give Carlson credit. He took a deep breath. He understood that he had to step back and he had to have a continuous delivery and when you’ve had the same delivery all year and you’re able to make that change, all credit goes to him.
“Some kids, that will get in their head a little bit. I didn’t see it getting his head at all,” Forbes said. “He did the opposite. He got ticked off, and he put his foot on the gas. So I was glad it happened to be honest with you.”
Carlson confirmed that the situation fired him up.
“Yeah, there was just something going on with my wind up, something I’ve been doing for the last two years,” said Carlson, who made his first start in 11 days. “Step forward, then a little pause in my motion here and there. But just gotta adjust and make the next step. That’s all you can focus on.”
The umpire first came to Carlson, and Forbes was upset that he didn’t come to him first.
Earlier this season, N.C. State had the umpires check pitcher Jake Knapp for sticky substances on his hands or glove. There was nothing to find and that fired up Knapp, who dominated the Wolfpack in a 12–2 victory.
Carolina had to win to continue its season, but also had to have a long outing from Carlson to save the Tar Heels bullpen for potentially two games on Sunday and a third on Monday.
Carlson (5–2) went to the bullpen for two weeks after a bad outing on April 21 against Boston College, but has been in the rotation since beating N.C. State 9–3 in his return as a starter on May 12. He’s always been known as a big-game starter and showed that again Saturday.
He’s confident that UNC can emerge from the losers’ bracket just as it did last year in the Chapel Hill Regional. Carolina lost its second game last season to VCU, then beat Georgia and VCU on Sunday before winning the regional title with a Monday win over VCU.
“A lot of guys on this team have experience in games like this,” Carlson said. “We were in the same position we were last year. The Heels are good when the backs are against the wall. We just stick with the process, keep doing what we’ve been doing all year. Stay strong from the neck up and just keep going.”
UNC got two baserunners in each of the first two innings but hit into inning-ending double plays both times. The Tar Heels hit into another double play in the third inning, but Horvath’s grounder scored Colby Wilkerson, who led off the inning with a single to left field.
Cook saved two runs in the fifth inning. He leaped high, stretched his arm over the wall and stole what would have been a two-run home run from Julian Greenwell. Earlier this season, Cook made ESPN Top 10 Plays for stealing a home run against Miami.
“It’s hard to find words to describe that feeling,” Carlson said of seeing Cook’s catch. “It was a game-changing play for sure. All eight other guys on the field playing defense behind me have been phenomenal. And making plays like that all year. So it’s nothing foreign, but it feels really good.”
Carlson, who threw 98 pitches in the ACC tournament against Georgia Tech last week, came out after throwing 82 on a steamy afternoon, 62 for strikes. He exited after Cook’s two-base fielding error with two outs in the sixth inning.
Carlson, who threw 98 pitches last week against Virginia, said he could have pitched longer but supported the decision.
“Coach Gaines was very decisive, ‘We need to go to Pence. It’s a better matchup,’ ” Forbes said of the advice he got from Gaines. “He struggles against left-handers. And I agree, I think Dalton Pence has been one of our best guys down the stretch. So at that point, pretty easy decision for us.”
Pence came on and induced an inning-ending groundout. He pitched the final 2⅓ hitless innings with one strikeout for his second save.
It was tense until Horvath’s three-run homer in the seventh inning gave the Tar Heels some breathing room.
Junior third baseman Johnny Castagnozzi tacked on another UNC run with a two-out RBI single to right field in the eighth inning.
Forbes said everybody except Carlson is available for Sunday afternoon’s game and a potential Sunday night game, mentioning freshman right-hander Cameron Padgett as a possible starter.
NOTES — UNC won a game an NCAA tournament game for the 28th consecutive year dating back to 1983. … The game lasted only 2 hours, 17 minutes. … Carolina is attempting to rebound from losing its NCAA tournament opener to win a regional for the first time in five tries. In 1993 in College Station, Texas, and 1998 in Coral Gables, Fla., the Tar Heels came one win shy of winning the regional, losing to hosts Texas A&M and Miami. UNC only won once after losing the 2014 opener in Gainesville, Fla., and only twice after losing the 2017 opener at home. … Cook singled in the third inning to end an 0-for-14 skid. … Cook’s catch was No. 9 on ESPN “SportsCenter” Top 10 plays, the second time he’s made the segment and the fifth time a UNC player has made the segment this season. … Carolina is 4–0 all-time against Wright State after sweeping a three-game home series in 2012 by a combined score of 34–3.
UNC 5, Wright State 0
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics Communications
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