University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Tar Heel Baseball Notebook
May 27, 2008 | Baseball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
May 27, 2008
By Adam Lucas
Within minutes of ESPN revealing Carolina's opening-game opponent, Mike Fox was already logged onto his office computer poking through Google.
His chosen search? Mount St. Mary's.
Obtaining scouting reports on regional teams Elon and UNC-Wilmington won't be much of a challenge. The Tar Heels played Elon earlier this year and have numerous common opponents with UNC-Wilmington. But the Mount was more of a mystery.
Mount St. Mary's won four straight games out of the loser's bracket of the Northeast Conference tournament to advance to NCAA play. Their 2008 schedule includes three games against ACC teams--Boston College, Maryland, and Virginia (the ACC foes prevailed by a combined 30-7 margin)--but no league opponents during the month of May. That's important for the Tar Heel coaches, who are looking for the most recent information possible when compiling scouting reports. A hitter struggling with inside pitches in mid-April might have made an adjustment at the plate by late May.
"At this point in the year, there are no secrets anymore," Fox said.
That's especially true for Carolina, a team that has played several games on television and has had over 20 games broadcast by ACC Select, the league's internet video service...
UNC-Wilmington may not need to watch much video on the Tar Heels. Although the two in-state schools didn't meet this year, the Seahawks' pitching coach is former UNC assistant Jason Howell, who was the third assistant on Carolina's CWS teams in 2006 and 2007. "We've already changed our signs today," Fox said with a smile...
Ryan Graepel was a late-inning defensive substitution in two ACC Tournament games at shortstop, where Garrett Gore has committed 21 errors and is fielding .910. Gore has started 53 of Carolina's 58 games and is a skilled fielder--he moved into the starting lineup during Carolina's run to Omaha in 2006 in large part because of his quality defense--but has lost some confidence as his errors have accumulated.
At Monday's practice session, Graepel worked on his offense (he's hitting .231) while Gore made approximately 100 throws to work out his fielding issues.
After removing Gore on Saturday against Florida State, Fox immediately spent some quality time with the Wilmington native in the dugout.
"Garrett is one of the neatest kids ever," Fox said. "He's one of the most well-respected kids on our team. At that moment, it's about reassuring him that everything is going to be OK and the reasoning behind making a move. I'm trying to turn around the way he's feeling as fast as I can. Sometimes it's not what you say, but how you make them feel."
Graepel can sympathize, because he went through his own fielding yips earlier this season, committing five of his six 2008 errors in a two-game stretch in the first week of the year. Since then, he's been virtually flawless in the field, including a pair of nifty plays in Jacksonville.
"Fielding is all about confidence," Graepel said. "I just had to feel like I got my errors for the year out of the way early. Right now I have a lot of confidence. Garrett will get his confidence back, because he's a tremendous fielder."...Another practice adjustment came on the mound, where pitching coach Scott Forbes worked with Rob Wooten to tweak his mechanics in an effort to help Wooten's dangerous slider find the strike zone. Wooten is tied for the ACC lead in appearances with 35...
The Carolina baseball Mailbag returns this week. Questions on all topics other than recruiting are welcome. Make sure to include your name and home town when sending your questions. We'll have a new baseball story every morning this week, so check back each day...
How deep is Carolina's pitching staff? Two pitchers with an ERA below 1.75 were left off the postseason roster. Add in the injured Garrett Davis, who did not allow an earned run in two appearances before suffering an arm injury, and the Tar Heels have a trio of sub-1.75 pitchers on the inactive list...The Tar Heels have not lost a game in regional play over the last two seasons, but that's not the norm nationwide. Eleven of 16 top seeds in four-team regionals lost at least one game in 2007, and three of the 16 top seeds lost their opening game to their fourth-seeded opponent...The only two regionals that will be televised this weekend are in Coral Gables and Fullerton. Both of those regionals will be on ESPNU. Fans will, of course, be able to listen to all of Carolina's postseason games for free online here at TarHeelBlue.com through All-Access.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
