University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Cavasinni Ignites Carolina Offense
June 1, 2006 | Baseball
June 1, 2006
By Adam Lucas
Mike Cavasinni stepped to the plate with a purpose.
Carolina was going for the series victory in a key three-game road set at Miami on April 9. Cavasinni had come up with a pinch hit for the Tar Heels in Saturday's game, so head coach Mike Fox penciled him into Sunday's starting lineup. This qualified as an important step for the freshman, as he'd started just two of the previous 11 Atlantic Coast Conference games. After losing some confidence early in the season, he thought perhaps the successful pinch-hit appearance might signal a resurgence. Maybe he was earning some respect.
Cue the spectacularly irritating Miami public address announcer, who boomed the following words across Mark Light Field during the introduction of the starting lineups:
"Playing centerfield for the Tar Heels, Mike Cavaninny. The centerfielder, Cavaninny."
In the world of a college baseball dugout, where every slight miscue is cause for riotous laughter, this qualified as high comedy. Players roared. Even a couple coaches laughed. And Cavaninny, er, Cavasinni had to smile.
"Everybody started laughing and it really relaxed me," the freshman says. "All of a sudden I wasn't trying to do too much. I was able to go back to my old game. It was just one day, but that's what a lot of people say turned things around."
The 5-foot-7 Cavasinni's "old game" isn't especially flashy. He's not going to hit many home runs--he doesn't have a roundtripper this season and has just three extra-base hits (all doubles) among his 44 hits. He's slugging just .318, almost 100 points below any of the other regulars.
But Cavasinni's speed can often turn a measly single into a double or a triple through aggressive hit-and-runs or other basepath maneuvers. As the calendar flipped to May, he began to perfect the clawing style of baseball Mike Fox first saw when he recruited him out of North Mecklenburg High.
"He's as fast from home to first as anyone I have ever coached," Fox says.
And he's learning how to use that speed to his advantage. His trademark play over the last month has been a grounder between shortstop and third base that inevitably produces an infield hit; teams have begun to position their shortstop almost next to the third baseman to combat the play. His .382 on-base percentage is fifth-best on the team, and he's taken nineteen walks. Those are the kinds of skills he flashed during an outstanding fall practice in 2005, his first exposure to the college game. Hits seemed to come easily for him, and Fox said the freshman might have had as good a fall camp as anyone on the roster.
As it turned out, the hits might have come too easily. Unlike most freshmen, he was never exposed to failure during his first taste of college pitching. For that reason, his first extended batting slump this spring was jarring.
"When the season started and the slump hit it was such a shock," Cavasinni says. "I didn't know how to handle it. I had never had that big of an 0-for before."
He spent extra time with assistant coach Chad Holbrook working on his bunting, an aspect of his game that had been easy at North Mecklenburg, when all he had to do was put the ball on the ground to earn a hit. Now, with stronger college arms and more agile players defending him, those bunt singles weren't quite as easy.
His average crept up every month--from .208 in February to .233 in March to a breakout .340 in April to a breakout .341 in May. As a freshman, he's already run the full gamut of playing time possibilities. He began the year as the leadoff man, played his way out of the lineup, was reinserted near the bottom of the order at midseason, and has now worked his way back to the leadoff spot.
Placing him at the top makes sense for a simple reason: good things happen when he gets on base. He's still developing the burglar's judgment that marks the best college base stealers--his 13-for-20 success rate this year is good but will improve markedly as his baserunning IQ improves--but it's not always straight steals that make him effective. He's scored the last three times he's reached base leading off an inning, including valuable first-inning runs against NC State and Boston College.
"I feel like if I can just work my way on base any way possible, those guys behind me are going to score me," Cavasinni says. "Maybe I can steal a base or read a dirt ball. Once I get to second base I know we're going to produce runs because of the hitters behind me."
He won't be the biggest or strongest player on the field in this weekend's four-team Chapel Hill regional. His listed height might be inflated, and he used "I Wish" ("I wish I was a little bit taller/I wish I was a baller") by Skee-Lo as his at-bat song for the first part of the season before switching to the more self-assured "Return of the Mack," a musical exchange that corresponded with his offensive resurgence. He's often the target of opposing hecklers; he wryly notes that one of the best parts of playing at home this weekend will be not having to deal with opposing fans shrieking, "He's so little!" as they did when the Tar Heels played at Georgia Tech.
But as long as he's the same relaxed Mike Cavasinni who has taken the field every day since the Miami series, he'll be an important cog in Carolina's offensive attack.
"He creates opportunities for us," Fox says. "He has that one asset you can't teach or coach and that's speed. He fills a void we've had in terms of a true leadoff hitter, a guy who can hit a weak ground ball and still end up on first. It's a real luxury for our offense."
No matter what name they call him.
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.
