University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Big Stage Now Familiar
April 24, 2008 | Baseball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
April 24, 2008
By Adam Lucas
It didn't take the class that enrolled in the fall of 2004 very long to be exposed to an important college baseball series. That was Mike Fox's vision for the program when he recruited them, eventually signing one of the most important classes in school history. On the recruiting trail, the pitch was simple: with your help, the Tar Heels will soon be playing in games that would catch the attention of the college baseball world.
It took less than a year. In April of 2005, ninth-ranked Miami came to Boshamer Stadium to face the seventh-ranked Tar Heels. The ESPN family of networks televised all three games. Packed crowds squeezed into the historic stadium on Ridge Road. It was, after all, a rare opportunity to showcase just how far UNC baseball had come.
It was also a rout.
Miami won the first two games by a combined 35-16 margin, and the third game ended in a tie when the Hurricanes had to catch a plane.
Three players who will be in the starting lineup this weekend--Kyle Shelton, Seth Williams, and Chad Flack--played key roles in that series three years ago.
"I was nervous for that series," Flack says. "I didn't know what to expect. And when you're nervous, you play like you're afraid to make a mistake. You're scared to mess up because you might cost your team the game on a big stage."
The best measure of how far Carolina baseball has come isn't that it's hosting a showdown series this weekend against Florida State, an outstanding team. The series is important locally and nationally.
No, the best measure is that for the Tar Heels, this is almost routine.
They're excited, of course. Big games mean big crowds and big electricity.
"Everything is fun about a series like this," sophomore Tim Fedroff says. "There's nothing bad about it. When you play well, it brings you up. And when you don't do well, it's that much more motivation for next time."
A crackling atmosphere was a novelty in 2005. Now, it's normal. After all, once you've taken batting practice in Omaha with Erin Andrews hanging out by the cage, there's not much else that can make you tense.
Since that series against Miami, the Tar Heels have built an impressive resume: wins over traditional baseball powers Rice, Cal State Fullerton, and Mississippi State; series victories over Florida State, Miami, and Georgia Tech; an ACC Tournament title; a defeat of a good Alabama team on the road in a super-regional; a home super-regional victory over South Carolina; and two straight trips to the College World Series finals.
"Things have changed around," Flack says. "We're not the ones trying to prove we belong anymore. We have a huge target on our chests now. Everyone wants to beat North Carolina because of what we've done the last couple of years. It gives us a sense of pride that we've earned that target."
Nowhere is that target more evident than on the road, where the baseball team is starting to draw the same kind of increased attention from visiting fans that's usually received by Roy Williams's hoopsters. Travel with the basketball Tar Heels long enough, and you become accustomed to the camera flashes, the shrieks, and the sellout crowds. Those same elements are beginning to be seen on the diamond, too.
Average attendance at UNC-Charlotte home baseball games this year is 692, with no crowd of more than 1,554. When the Tar Heels traveled to the Queen City this week, announced attendance was 3,236--almost five times the average--and stadium officials eventually had to shut the gates to prevent more fans from jamming the park.
When UNC-Greensboro hosted Carolina on April 15, attendance was 1,625. That more than quintupled the average UNC-G baseball attendance of 300 per game and was more than the Spartans drew combined for April visits by ACC foes Duke (346) and NC State (821).
"In baseball, the physical differences that you see in a big game are relative to the mental and emotional differences the players are experiencing," head coach Mike Fox says. "When you get challenged and there are big games and big hype, there's an element of intensity that is cultivated. Everyone dials up their play a little bit, and you have to be careful about dialing it up too much, because then you try to do too much. It's fun, it's exciting, and you want to do everything you can to play your best. The goal is for that intensity to turn into good play."
That's exactly what's happened for Carolina over the past three seasons. The Tar Heels finished the 2005 campaign just 3-10 against ranked teams. Since then, the Diamond Heels are 46-24 against ranked foes, including 5-2 this year.
Three more games will be added to that total this weekend. Asked if he's nervous about the weekend's battle, Flack just smiles.
"After you've stepped on the field in Omaha and played for a national championship," he says, "you can't get nervous anymore."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
