University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Cool Under Pressure
June 7, 2008 | Baseball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
June 7, 2008
By Adam Lucas
All season long, Mike Fox has extolled the virtues of coaching a team with a roster full of players who have played in some of college baseball's biggest games.
Pick your favorite stat: the Tar Heels are one of just three teams to advance to the super-regionals in each of the past three seasons. Entering this weekend's best-of-three series against Coastal Carolina, the program had 68 NCAA Tournament victories; 21 of them have come over the past three seasons. When Fox filled out his lineup card for the first game of the series against the Chanticleers, seven of the players he penciled in had already played in at least 15 Tournament contests.
All of that experience counts for exactly nothing if those veteran players don't produce, of course. But Saturday's 9-4 victory provided perhaps the best example over this remarkable three-year stretch of the value of having players accustomed to the pressure of the postseason.
In the interests of full disclosure, Carolina was probably not five runs better than Coastal--a program playing in its first super-regional--on a sweltering afternoon at the USA Baseball Training Facility. But it's remarkable how much value exists in the game of baseball of making all the routine plays, playing good defense, keeping your composure...oh, and getting superior starting pitching.
"The story of our team all year long has been defense and pitching," Fox said. "I think that was the story here today."
First, the defense. The Tar Heels now have just two errors in four postseason games, and they played another errorless contest against the Chanticleers. There wasn't really a signature play, not of the type that will lead SportsCenter, but Carolina got defensive contributions around the diamond.
Mark Fleury, subbing at catcher for Tim Federowicz--who was hit yesterday by a virus--gunned down the speedy Scott Woodward (42 stolen bases this season) trying to steal second to end the fifth. Seth Williams tracked down a long Tyler Bortnick fly ball in deep center in the eighth. And then, as if to cap the day, Chad Flack robbed Rico Noel of a double and then made a strong throw to retire the leadoff man in the ninth.
The routine consistency of the Tar Heel defense was in stark contrast to Coastal, which uncharacteristically made six errors. Only three of the Carolina runs were earned, and the Chanticleers' defensive frustrations seemed to bubble over when ace reliever Joey Haug and starting pitcher Bobby Gagg were tossed from the game after already being removed from the mound. Those ejections come with four-game suspensions from the NCAA, which means both players are unavailable for the remainder of the super-regional.
That means Gary Gilmore must play the remainder of the weekend with a 23-man roster. Dean Smith scholars will know immediately what that means: the Chanticleers will be especially dangerous on Sunday, as the legendary Tar Heel hoops coach always warned of opponents summoning the effort to make a one-game stand after losing key players.
If that's the case, the Tar Heels will need another start similar to Alex White's outstanding performance on Saturday. The Carolina ace--he was voted the ACC Pitcher of the Year two weeks ago, but he's earned ace status here in the NCAA Tournament--threw seven strong innings on a 100-degree day.
"Getting ahead of the hitters was the most important thing today," White said. The Greenville native never went to a three-ball count while his offense was building a 3-0 lead in the first three innings, and in one stretch seven of nine Coastal hitters saw first-pitch strikes.
It's expected to be another blistering day in Cary on Sunday as the Tar Heels try to win the series. Saturday's outstanding crowd of 3,188--which was even better in both volume and size than might have been expected given the conditions--tried all conceivable methods to stay cool. There were portable fans, there were iced towels on heads, and there was even one spectator in full Sahara desert gear.
While everyone else was sweating, however, Carolina's experience showed. They weren't spectacular. But they also never looked overwhelmed.
For the first game of this super-regional, that was enough.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
