University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Tar Heel Baseball Notebook
May 14, 2008 | Baseball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
May 14, 2008
By Adam Lucas
Finally, it's here. Carolina caps a grueling final three weeks of the Atlantic Coast Conference season with a long-circled trip to Coral Gables to face top-ranked Miami in a rare Thursday-Friday-Saturday series. After Tuesday's nondescript 4-1 victory over Winthrop, both players and the head coach could admit that the series with the Hurricanes has been looming ever since the return from Charlottesville.
"It was hard for these kids to get going," Mike Fox said. "That's not taking anything away from Winthrop, because they were the aggressor to start the game. We pitched well and were able to dodge a bullet."
"It's tough to get up for a game like this," senior Kyle Shelton said after the win over Winthrop. "Everyone wanted to look ahead, and early you could tell we weren't ready. But late in the game our veterans started stepping up."
One of those veterans who stepped up was Shelton himself, who homered in the sixth inning to tie the game and now has Carolina's last three home runs. The last non-Shelton homer was hit by Dustin Ackley at Charlotte on April 22.
"I'm feeling comfortable in the box," said Shelton. "I'm getting my pitches to hit and I'm laying off the pitcher's pitches. It's starting to come to me a little bit right now."
Thursday is Shelton's 22nd birthday. The senior has never had an official at-bat on his birthday during his Tar Heel career...
Another veteran, Seth Williams, has quietly put together another solid season. In addition to his .306 average and 31 RBI, Williams has played a spectacular center field. The Hendersonville native habitually makes diving catches and has also developed a knack for getting jumps that turn potential doubles into routine plays.
"Seth is one of the best center fielders out there," Fox said. "He doesn't have great speed, but he gets great jumps. Defensively, he has played really well this year."...
Under Mike Fox, Carolina is 12-10 against the top-ranked team in the nation. The Tar Heels have won three of their last five regular-season series against the nation's number-one team...The NCAA tracks 25 major statistical categories for the nation's 286 Division I teams. Combined, Carolina and Miami have 13 top-10 appearances in those categories...Seven of the last 12 games in the series have been decided by two runs or less...
The ACC made the move to starting the final conference series to Thursday in an effort to assist teams with travel plans and pitching rest prior to the ACC Tournament. It's a move that has been widely praised by league coaches.
However, Carolina chose not to return to Chapel Hill for a day before heading back to Florida for next week's ACC Tournament in Jacksonville. Instead, the Tar Heels will bus to Orlando, where they'll spend a day soaking in Disney World and other area attractions. Then they'll bus the rest of the way to Jacksonville in time to participate in Tuesday's pre-tournament meetings and other administrative duties...
The Tar Heels used eight pitchers against Winthrop. Lefty Brian Moran and righty Rob Wooten are the established tough situation hurlers, while Colin Bates is entrenched in the valuable swingman role that used to belong to Jonathan Hovis. That leaves an array of talented pitchers to mix and match in other roles. And after two years of searching for a lefty specialist to retire lefthanded hitters in big situations, the Tar Heels may have two candidates this year: Rob Catapano and Logan Munson. Catapano started Tuesday's game and Munson looked sharp in picking up a strikeout in the eighth.
"Logan Munson had good velocity tonight and has been working on his breaking ball," Fox said. "We wanted to put them in situations tonight similar to when they might have to come in at Miami or down the stretch."...
All baseball radio broadcasts, including this weekend's big series at Miami, will be available free online here at TarHeelBlue.com.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
