University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Tar Heel Baseball Notebook
May 31, 2006 | Baseball
May 31, 2006
By Adam Lucas
The Carolina baseball coaching staff didn't have much choice about being productive on their eight-hour bus ride home from Jacksonville last Thursday afternoon.
The Tar Heels had just dropped two straight games, 9-3 to NC State and 7-6 to Florida State. Their Thursday morning loss to the Seminoles was the third straight year FSU had beaten Carolina in the ACC Tournament on a walk-off play.
So even with hundreds of miles stretching out before them, no one wearing blue felt much like stretching out.
"There wasn't even much movie watching," freshman outfielder Mike Cavasinni said. "Everyone was just in shock. None of us could believe that we had gone down there and lost two straight."
It was just Carolina's third set of back-to-back losses this season. And with a full week left before the NCAA regional round began, it had the potential to be a very long seven days of rehashing a disappointing performance.
Mike Fox and assistant coaches Chad Holbrook, Scott Forbes, and Jason Howell wanted to make sure that didn't happen.
"There were four things we wanted to accomplish in this week," Fox said. "Food, fun, practice, and strength training. Eight hours on a bus is a long time. So the four of us came up with things we needed to do, took notes, and came up with a schedule for the next week. We took it back to Jonathan Hovis and Bryan Steed and they were really fired up about it."
The schedule included a couple of scrimmages, but it also included off-the-field activities like a team trip to a movie, a team dinner at Champps at Southpoint, and a team cookout.
The final verdict on the productivity of the coaches' planning won't be known for sure until Carolina takes the field Friday at 6 p.m. against Maine at Boshamer Stadium. But after a two-hour workout (in shorts with music blaring during part of BP, another concession from the coaches) on Wednesday, catcher Benji Johnson said the mix of activities had been a blessing.
"It's been a lot of fun," he said. "It's been relaxing, actually. Coach has kept it low key."
And, of course, productive.
"It might be the best week that I've had with a team since I've been here," Fox said...
Hovis and Steed, along with the team's core group of leaders, were instrumental in refocusing the squad after the disappointment in Jacksonville.
"We were pretty down on Friday at practice," Cavasinni said. "Hovis and the juniors--Bard, Miller, and Woodard especially--told us we had to battle. They told us we were going to host a regional and it was going to be a great opportunity."...
Hosting a regional comes with perks but it also comes with extra responsibility. Mike Fox led the pitchers Wednesday just before lunch in scrubbing the padding that lines the fence along the first-base line to make sure every detail of Boshamer is pristine for the four-team event.
"Wax on, wax off," Fox said with a laugh. "Just like Mr. Miyagi."...
Woodard will start for the Tar Heels against the Black Bears. Miller will start Carolina's second game...
After allowing just one earned run in his first 22 appearances of the 2006 season, closer Andrew Carignan has been touched for nine earned runs in his last five outings. He took the loss against the Seminoles after entering in the ninth inning and allowing a hit batter, a walk, a fielder's choice on a hotly disputed call, and a game-winning single.
Forbes, the pitching coach, fixed a flaw in Carignan's mechanics--the flamethrower was coming to the plate too quickly, causing him to lose location--following a pair of four-run outings in mid-May. Fox says he has not seen any residual effects from the tough outings.
"People have to remember this is the first time `AC' has done this," the head coach said. "He was a catcher, hitter, and part-time pitcher in high school and he didn't pitch much for us last year. Now all of a sudden he falls into this closer role. He does extremely well and then boom, he doesn't get it done one time and that's a new thing for him.
"We're not concerned about him. He'll be out there Friday night if it's a save situation. We have all the confidence in the world in him and he just has to have that same confidence in himself."
Carignan threw in two scrimmages this week to stay fresh for the regional...
Due to NCAA rules, Carolina (as the designated home team) will be in the unfamiliar third base dugout for the weekend and visiting teams will use the Tar Heel locker room and first base dugout for much of the weekend...Roy Williams will address the Tar Heels at Thursday morning's practice...Check back Thursday morning for a story on freshman leadoff hitter Mike Cavasinni and Friday morning for a feature on Carolina's outstanding catching duo.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.
