University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Williams Plays Confidence Game
June 9, 2006 | Baseball
June 9, 2006
By Adam Lucas
While coaching third base in the middle of one of Carolina's biggest offensive outbursts of the 2006 season, something unexpected happened to Mike Fox.
In the seventh inning of the clinching regional win over Winthrop last weekend, Fox was standing in the coaching box with his team holding a 13-2 lead on the way to a 14-2 victory. Seth Williams drew a walk and advanced to third after a pair of singles. As Benji Johnson prepared to try and drive in another run, Fox looked at Williams.
"Hey, isn't this fun?" the head coach said.
That's when the unexpected happened. Williams smiled.
For the sophomore outfielder, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound mountain for whom "Yes, sir," usually qualifies as extensive conversation, this was an emotional outpouring. He's soldiered on throughout this season without any outward complaints despite a nagging back injury that limited his considerable athleticism. The back pain has occasionally been evident in his play, as when he had to hobble down the first base line running out a grounder or wasn't able to track down a fly ball as smoothly as he might have liked, but he's rarely used it as an excuse unless asked specifically about it.
It doesn't take a doctor to know that it's impacted his second campaign at Carolina. Williams didn't play in the first eight games of the season and hit just .205 in April, going without a hit from April 25 to May 12.
He broke the slide with two hits in the three-game series at Virginia, sandwiching those hits around a spectacular diving catch on Saturday that earned him a slot on ESPN SportsCenter's "Top Plays."
"Before that Virginia series, I told myself I might as well let it all hang out," Williams says. "Since then, things have been going a lot better."
Maybe it was just that simple. Since returning from Charlottesville, he's collected hits in seven of Carolina's nine games and compiled a .357 batting average.
"With Seth, it's always about confidence," Fox says. "He hasn't learned yet that failure is part of hitting. When he's not hitting, you can see it. And when he's swinging well and getting hits, you can see it. Thank goodness he's getting his confidence at the right time."
The timing could be particularly fortuitous tonight. Alabama will start lefthander Wade LeBlanc (11-0, 2.62) in the first game of the best-of-three super regional series in Tuscaloosa. Williams is hitting over 100 points higher against lefties than he is against righties.
He's also made some plate adjustments to create a more effective hitter.
Although he swatted 13 homers last season, the second-best figure ever by a Carolina freshman, he was occasionally feast-or-famine on offense. He struck out once every 3.5 at-bats, and has changed his two-strike approach to put the ball in play more frequently.
"I've shortened my swing a lot," he says. "Last year I wanted to hit home runs. This year as long as I'm centering balls and using all sides of the field, I'm happy.
"I really wanted to cut down on my strikeouts. So I'm using the right side more often. Last year with two strikes I thought they would try to blow the fastball by me every time. This year I'm sitting offspeed with two strikes and trying to pepper the ball."
It's worked. He's now striking out once every six times at bat.
Defensively, Williams has always been a weapon. He's best known for his arm--while trying to prevent a runner from tagging, his rifle shot from right field to third base in a road game earlier this year caused one of the biggest "Oooohs" from the crowd you'll ever hear at a baseball game short of a long home run--but also has good instincts and gets good jumps.
Summer teams have noticed his diverse tools. After a quality summer last year in the Coastal Plain League, he's slated to play for the Chatham A's in the prestigious Cape Cod League this summer. But although he's looking forward to the chance to spend time with several Tar Heel teammates who are also ticketed for Chatham, he wouldn't mind being late for the Cape season, which begins on June 15.
"I know it would be fun to play in Chatham," he says. "But I'd rather be at Carolina as long as possible this summer. Let's get to the College World Series and then I'll start thinking about the summer."
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.
