Very little went right for North Carolina Friday night but that didn’t stop the Tar Heels from fighting until the end of the game, a game that ended UNC’s season.

UCLA got good pitching and a few breaks to defeat Carolina 4-1 in the NCAA College World Series.

It was a frustrating game for the Heels as they actually outhit the Bruins 7-6 while Carolina pitchers struck out more batters 8-6.

“You’ve gotta be a little lucky and opportunistic, UNC coach Mike Fox said. “We weren’t able to do that.”

While UCLA got timely hitting and excellent pitching, it also took some luck.

What looked like routine ground balls turned into UCLA hits strung together.

Then there were three incorrect umpire calls that went against the Tar Heels.

First, Bolt was safe on a play at first but the umpire called him out. That double play essentially killed Carolina’s chances of scoring in that inning. Then, Emanuel picked off a base runner at first on a bang-bang play but the runner was called safe. He eventually scored.

Finally, there was a force play on a grounder in the ninth where the shortstop was nowhere close to the bag with the ball that severely hurt Carolina’s chances. Usually breaks even out in games but not this time.

Had the play at second been called correctly, a walk would have forced in a run and the final fly out would probably have scored another run. The score would have been 4-3 with Carolina’s All-America Colin Moran coming to the plate with two outs and a man in scoring position.

But, that’s baseball.

To their credit, not one Tar Heel mentioned any of those plays as excuses after the game.

“You have to have talent but you have to have some character,” Coach Fox said. “I feel like that’s a big part of our program.”

Coach Fox said that the Tar Heels played hard every game and represented college athletics and college baseball the right way. He added, “The winning is part of it certainly but there are so many other special things that went on throughout the season.”