A first for a UNC and ACC baseball coach.
North Carolina head coach Mike Fox, who guided the Tar Heels to a third straight trip to the College World Series in 2008, was named national coach of the year Monday by Baseball America. A two-time ABCA Atlantic Region Coach of the Year, Fox is the first UNC baseball coach to claim national coaching honors and the first Atlantic Coast Conference skipper to be honored by Baseball America.
UNC was won 165 games in the past three seasons which leads the nation, finished 2nd in the CWS twice and 3rd this season, won the first ACC title since 1990 in 2007 and has established UNC as a powerhouse in the growing sport of college baseball.
Congrats Coach Fox and the rest of the Diamond Heels on another outstanding season.
Frustration, thy name this season is Fresno State who beat the Heels 6-1 to send UNC home for the summer.
Continue reading ‘Heels Come Up Short in CWS…Again’
CWS: UNC 7 LSU 3
Wow were they ever due and Tim Federowicz delivered with a tie breaking grand slam with two outs in the ninth. LSU decided to intentionally walk Tim Fedroff and face Federowicz. The latter made the Tigers pay and registered the 1st grand slam at the CWS since 2001.
The question now is whether the pitching rotation is too hosed up to beat Fresno State twice. Alex White was brought in to pitch in the eighth making it impossible for him to start against FSU on Saturday. Of course it is all about surviving at this point and perhaps the grand slam was the match to the fuse igniting a Tar Heel offensive explosion going forward.
Heels face the Bulldogs Saturday night at 7 PM.
I am starting to get the feeling UNC is snake bitten in Omaha.
Continue reading ‘Heels Resume CWS Game Tonight’
UNC will play the first of what could be three straight win or go home games when they take on LSU in the College World Series tonight at 7 PM. Mike Fox will hand the defibrillator paddles to freshman Matt Harvey hoping he can keep the Heels alive to fight another day. Reliever Rob Wooten, whose arm does not appear to be fully human, will be available despite 3 1/3 innings and 58 pitches against Fresno State.
Of course the bottom line for UNC this season has been hitting and their failure to only score three runs when they came in averaging 10 per game in the NCAA Tournament is a direct indicator of what went wrong against Fresno State.
One thing is certain, it cannot happen again.
I find it exceedingly annoying when teams who have no business advancing past a certain point show up late in the tournament and make life difficult for UNC. UNC has dealt with this plenty in basketball and now the baseball team had a #4 regional seed Fresno St beat them to move to 2-0 in Bracket #2. UNC left about 10 runners on base and had a ton of plays that just did not work out. Now the Heels face the same gauntlet as last season and that is winning three straight elimination games to get to the title series.
UNC will face LSU on Thursday in a loser goes home game. If they win that one, the Heels need to beat Fresno State twice to advance.
UNC did what the other three higher seeded teams in Omaha could not do and that was avoid being shellacked in their opening game. #1 Miami gave up four runs in the ninth to lose 7-4 to #8 Georgia. #4 FSU gave up 11 runs in the ninth to unseeded Stanford and #6 Rice was crushed by Fresno State. So UNC, by beating LSU 8-4 and doing so in a fairly businesslike fashion, looks the most focused among the favorites in Omaha.
Alex White once again did a great job of shutting down the opposing team and allowing the offense to post some runs. The Heels were never really threatened and Rob Wooten closed the deal to send UNC into the winners’ bracket to face hot hitting Fresno State on Tuesday.
UPDATE: The N&O’s Caulton Tudor is reporting Green will make his decision on Monday since that is when he will meet with Roy. Apparently Lawson and Ellington will also announce on Monday as well.
North Carolina basketball player Danny Green said Sunday afternoon that he will wait until Monday before making a decision about his status in the June 26 NBA Draft.
Green, a rising senior and one of the Tar Heels’ most productive performers in ‘07-’08, originally intended to reach a decision today. But a meeting between the player and Carolina coach Roy Williams, which had been tentatively schedule for Sunday, is now off until Monday. “After that, I’ll decide,” Green said Sunday. “I still can’t say which way I’ll go.”
Williams was scheduled to take a flight from the Triangle to Omaha, Neb., Sunday. Carolina’s baseball team will face Louisiana State Sunday night at 7 o’clock (Eastern) in the College World Series.
Two other Carolina underclassmen, guards Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson, are also expected to decide about their draft status on Monday. Players have until 5 p.m. Monday to withdraw and maintain their college eligibility.
So, Monday this long freakish fiasco will be over.
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Decision day for the Tar Heel Three? UNC also opens the CWS at 7 PM
Continue reading ‘What Will Sunday Bring?[UPDATED]‘
UPDATE: The Heels closed the deal winning the game 14-4. UNC will now take a 3rd consecutive run at winning a national title in baseball and this time Oregon State won’t be a problem…they failed to even make the tournament. Is the third time the charm? We will find out soon.
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Barring a miraculous comeback by Coastal Carolina, the earth opening up and swallowing the team or a nuclear strike on Cary.
The Heels jumped all over Coastal Carolina in the 2nd inning going ahead 6-0. They have since doubled that total and lead 12-0 with the Chanticleers batting in the bottom of the 7th. Aside from the offensive explosion UNC has gotten a two hit shutout thus far from Adam Warren and now Colin Bates.
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