University of North Carolina Athletics
Baseball Season Opens This Weekend
February 11, 2002 | Baseball
Feb. 11, 2002
Mike Fox Interview, Part 1 (Feb. 8, 2002)
The 2002 UNC baseball season is less than one week away, and TarHeelBlue.com is prepared to once again serve as your home for comprehensive coverage of the Tar Heels throughout the season, including live online game scoring, in-depth features and profiles of players and coaches, game stories, stats, bios and more.
As we count down to opening day, a 3 p.m. game on Feb. 15 versus Seton Hall at Boshamer Stadium, we bring you Part 2 of a two-part conversation with UNC head coach Mike Fox. Check back throughout the week for interviews with Sean Farrell, Russ Adams, Scott Autrey and Ryan Blake as they prepare for the 2002 season.
Here is more of what Coach Fox had to say about his 2002 team:
What do you see with your catching situation this year?
"We feel very good about our catching situation. We've got three quality catchers - Ryan Blake and Ron Braun who are back from last year with experience, and Chris Iannetta, a freshman who is a very promising player for us. We like his ability, his attitude and his strength.
"For the first time in the last four or five years we have three quality catchers who can catch in a game at any time. It's going to be a battle back there amongst those three guys for playing time. That's been helpful because they know that and they've been competing against one another. We won't have to catch the same catcher five or six games in a row this year.
"Chris and Ryan can also both play first and Ron can DH, so we have some good options."
You have plenty of experience and talent returning to the infield. what do you look for from this unit in 2002?
"We're excited to have Russ Adams and Chad Prosser coming back at second and short respectively. Russ is such a hard worker and very business-like. He is a great influence on our team. Chad's coming off his best year last year. I don't think there's any question that he was our most consistent and probably our best hitter last year, especially down the stretch. He and Russ complement each other defensively. They're good friends and they get out there and work together at both short and second. We've got a good situation with having two guys who can play short who we feel comfortable with.
"We decided to move Chris Maples from third base to right field. He's going to be pitching some for us and we're going to try to help his arm a little bit. He has the best arm on the team so that's a plus in right field.
"We'll plug in Sammy Hewitt, a transfer, and freshman Mickey Burgess at third. Hopefully one of those two will be able to play that position on a daily basis. Sammy's a pitcher too, so when he's on the mound we'll plug Mickey in. We also have Justin Webb and Greg Mangum, two freshmen who will be backups in the middle infield. They're good athletes who will give us some depth.
"We're two deep at third, short and second and at first base we have Jeremy Cleveland who's returning after a good freshman year last year. We've also got Ryan (Blake), Sammy, Bryan Phillips and Chris (Ianetta) who can play first. We've got a slew of guys we're looking at to play there. We're in good shape with some depth as well as some left- and right-handed hitting."
You're outfield is made up of two juniors, left fielder Sean Farrell and center fielder Adam Greenberg, and senior right fielder Chris Maples. How do you feel about this group?
"We're in good shape in the outfield. We've got guys who have played out there for a
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"Chris Maples is a senior who can play all over the field. He played right field last summer for the Durham Braves. He has an unbelievable arm. That's such a comfort to know you have three guys out there who aren't going to hurt you in the outfield. They have the potential to take runs away, and I don't think they're going to give runs by making silly mistakes.
"We've got Wes Moyer, Chase Younts and Mell Adams plugged in as backups at left, center and right. We're two deep at every position which allows some competition. Mell will definitely play some because he can swing the bat. He'll come in and play right when Maples pitches."
Is there a particular style of play fans of the Tar Heels should expect to see from your team in 2002?
"We need to play aggressively and run and take extra bases, particularly with Russ and Adam. We also have some more power this year. Sean Farrell had a very good fall. He's extremely motivated and takes a lot of pride in his game. I hope we can be more balanced than we were last year.
"We need to find that one guy that's fearful that a lot of teams in this league have. Hopefully we'll get a guy step up like that who we can hit right in the middle of the order.
"Adam, Sean, Russ and Chad Prosser also had a lot of bunts for base hits last year. That's also part of our game."
What were your thoughts in making out what has to be one of the toughest schedules in the nation?
"We anticipated having some more experience this year and wanted to take on a tougher schedule. We simply need to play good teams.
"If I'm a player, I want to play the best teams. I designed the schedule to get us to
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"I want to continue to play a quality schedule."
After guiding the Tar Heels to record-setting seasons in 1999 and 2000, what did you and your team learn from last year's 31-26 campaign?
"We really didn't have that bad of a year last year. To go 31-26 with all those young guys is not bad - but it wasn't what we're looking for. Four more wins could have put us in the NCAA Tournament. We were right there on the brink, in a really good conference with a lot of young guys and a lot of older guys who didn't play as well as we know they can. We lost some close games that maybe a more experienced team would have won.
"Everyone tried too hard, especially after starting 0-7 in the ACC. It's the hardest thing to do as a player to come bouncing in here when you're 0-3, 0-4, but we all have to do it. I think our players lost a little bit of the fun out of playing last year. I think that's what happens sometimes when you want to win and you have the pressure on you to win. We all let that squeeze us last year. But we talked about it last year and I think that's why we started playing better down the stretch. We need to start that way this year.
"Baseball is such a mental game. We started off the fall season by talking about what we learned last year. We're going to try to all do better. If we don't take anything from last year into this season then it was all for naught."
