OMAHA—Jacob Stallings entered Thursday’s game against Arizona State with three sacrifice bunts all season. He sure looked like a master of the art in the first four innings today. Twice Stallings came up with a runner at third base, and twice he laid down a perfect safety squeeze bunt with two strikes. Both bunts were placed between the pitcher’s mound and first base, and both were scored 3-4.

Stallings drove in UNC’s first two runs, and the Tar Heels expanded their lead to 4-0 in the top of the fourth on RBI singles by Mike Cavasinni and Ryan Graepel. But ASU starter Josh Spence escaped further damage by striking out Dustin Ackley looking on an 80 mph breaking ball over the inside corner, stranding runners on the corners. It’s not a good sign for the Sun Devils that Ackley and Kyle Seager have done very little so far and the Tar Heels have a four-run lead.