University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Tar Heel Baseball Notebook
June 8, 2006 | Baseball
June 8, 2006
By Adam Lucas
Head coach Mike Fox juggled his starting rotation for the weekend's super-regional. Andrew Miller remains in the first slot and will start the opening game Friday night. Daniel Bard has moved into the Saturday role for the first time this season, and Robert Woodard will start a potential series-deciding game on Sunday.
"We feel like Daniel is really throwing the ball well," Fox said. "Robert has struggled a little bit in his last two games. If we go to that third game and we have Robert Woodard out there, knowing how big a competitor he is, in our biggest game of the season we'll be in pretty good shape."
Bard has a 1.56 ERA over his last seven appearances (40.1 IP); Woodard has worked five-plus innings just once in his last three starts...
The Tar Heels flew to Tuscaloosa Wednesday night. They'll work out for the first time in Alabama's Sewell-Thomas Stadium today. Alabama has ranked among the nation's top five in attendance in each of the last six years...A Crimson Tide scouting report from Fox: "They'll pitch very well against us. They'll feed off their crowd. We have to keep (leadoff hitter) Emeel Salem off the bases. He creates opportunities for them the same way Mike Cavasinni does for us. We're going to have to not walk people and not give them freebies. We have to keep our walks and errors down and make them earn every run they get."...
Alabama hasn't lost a series at home since Winthrop took two out of three from the Tide in the first series of the year. Carolina was 6-6 on the road against ranked teams this season...The Tide has been shut out at home just twice in the past 11 years...One of the most elusive mysteries of the Carolina baseball season was solved recently. Extensive research revealed that Tar Heel equipment manager Carolina All-Access. Friday night's broadcast will begin with a 15-minute pregame show starting at 6:45 p.m. Eastern...You can send an email to the radio team of Jones Angell and Adam Lucas by by clicking here. As usual, they'll be reading your emails on the air throughout the weekend...
The Tar Heels added Matt McNichol to the 25-man super regional roster with the expectation of needing his excellent speed in the late innings of a close game...If you haven't already, check out Boshamer.com for more information on the extensive upcoming Boshamer Stadium upgrades...Carolina has used the same starting lineup in back-to-back games on only one occasion this season: a three-game stretch from April 9-April 14...Two Tar Heels have a positive experience on the road in the NCAA Tournament in a hostile SEC setting. Matt Danford and Jonathan Hovis were on the 2003 team that upset Mississippi State in Starkville to advance to the super-regional, which was also the last time the Diamond Heels made it to that round...
The Tar Heels are 13-2 when they don't commit an error. One of those losses came at Georgia Tech in a game lost partly by virtue of a fluky missed fly ball that wasn't charged as an error.
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.
