CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—The second-longest winning streak in college baseball is over, and one more loss will mean the same for Arizona’s season.
The Wildcats fell behind big early and couldn’t recover, despite many scoring chances, falling 18-2 at North Carolina in the opener of the best-of-3 Super Regional series at Boshamer Stadium.
“Obviously not the best first game, but it’s one game,” UA coach Chip Hale said. “And it’s a 3-game series, which is the beauty of baseball. We’re not in uncharted waters. We’ve lost some Friday games and come back and won the series. So I think the guys feel that way.”
The 5th-seeded Tar Heels (46-13) scored more runs than Arizona (42-19) had allowed during its 8-game win streak, putting up a 5-spot in the bottom of the 1st and chasing UA starter Owen Kramkowski after three more in the 2nd. That made it next to impossible for the Wildcats to come back against UNC starter Jake Knapp, who entered with a 13-0 record and 1.98 ERA.
But Arizona did hit Knapp better than anyone else this season, tagging him for two runs and a season-high nine hits. It just couldn’t get the big hit, going 2 for 8 with runners in scoring position and managing only one run from a pair of bases loaded situations with less than two outs.
“That was a rough one, made me work,” Knapp said afterward.
Adonys Guzman was 4 for 4 including an RBI single in the top of the 1st that gave Arizona a brief lead, while the Wildcats’ bottom four hitters were on base seven times. It was the top of the order that struggled, going 2 for 13 with one of those hits coming in the 9th.
That included a backbreaking 6-4-3 double play hit into by Brendan Summerhill to end the 2nd. Consecutive 1-out hits by Andrew Cain, Tommy Splaine and Easton Breyfogle brought Summerhill to the plate before he hit one sharply to UNC shortstop Alex Madera to start the twin killing.
“I felt like our offense, we had good at-bats all day,” Hale said. “We had hard contact. I think we struck out three times.”
Added Garen Caulfield, who was 1 for 3 with a walk and a run scored in his 227th career game at Arizona, tied for third in school history: “The first couple innings felt outstanding. We just credit that to the staff and the plan we put together for (Knapp). I was excited to see those at-bats, and they were really contagious early on. It felt like we went down 5-1 and didn’t feel like we were quite out of it yet. I just credit that to the plan.”
UNC began the game with its first five batters reaching base. Kramkowski hit leadoff man Kane Kepley, who has been plunked 26 times this season, and walked the next man before allowing back-to-back run-scoring singles and then the big blow, a 3-run home run to Hunter Stokley.
Another 3-run shot, by Luke Stevenson, made it 8-1 and ended Kramkowski’s day after 1.1 innings. It was his first outing since allowing eight runs in 0.2 innings to open the season against Louisville in Arlington, Texas.
“I think he was center cut a lot,” Hale said of Kramkowski. “It was a little bit reminiscent of Globe Life. He stuff wasn’t bad, it’s just the location. You look at up and down their lineup, they’re veteran guys who know how to hit. They’ve got short swings, but they’re going to take advantage of that location. I think the first batter getting hit by the cutter in, I think that threw him off.”
Forced to go to the bullpen extremely early, Arizona used mostly low-leverage arms in hopes of saving its top relievers for Saturday and possibly Sunday. Michael Hilker Jr. came in for Kramkowski and retired all five Tar Heels he faced, though he got a lot of help from Aaron Walton in center.
Hilker may have gone longer but, after striking out a batter to end the 3rd he vomited on the field twice while walking to the dugout. Hilker had thrown three scoreless innings (with seven strikeouts) against Utah Valley in the Eugene Regional.
“When I was in pro ball, we used to have guys that would vomit, and I didn’t want anybody pulling a muscle or anything like that,” Hale said. “So that’s part of it. The other part of it is he’s available tomorrow. He’s available on Sunday. Once we get behind like that, we’re going to run some different guys out there and try to save some.”
Matthew Martinez, Collin McKinney, Eric Orloff and Bryce McKnight followed and none were effective. UNC scored twice in the 5th, twice in the 6th, once in the 7th and five times in the 8th for its most runs in a Super Regional. Orloff and McKnight allowed homers in the 8th, the four longballs given up the most in 120 games under Kevin Vance since he took over as pitching coach last season.
Arizona remains tops among power-conference schools in homers allowed, at 38, but didn’t hit one out after smacking 15 in the regional including a school-record eight in one game.
Senior Raul Garayzar (2-0, 2.54) will start for Arizona in Saturday’s 9 a.m. PT game against UNC righty Jake DeCaro (9-3, 3.50). Garayzar only lasted 3-plus innings in his last start but had two solid outings before that after moving into the weekend rotation.
Arizona lost the opener of a Super Regional for the first time in six appearances, and it was the eighth time this season it has begun a weekend with a loss. That includes six times in Big 12 play, with the Wildcats coming back to take the next two three times.
“You can’t put too much importance on one game, I’ve learned,” Caulfield said. “It was just a baseball game today, and there’s another baseball game tomorrow. And obviously our backs are against the wall, but we just got to flush it and get to tomorrow.”
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