University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Tale Of Two Halves
June 18, 2011 | Baseball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
June 18, 2011
By Adam Lucas
OMAHA, Neb.--Baseball is played in innings, not halves, the rare sporting event that is not susceptible to the whims of a game clock. But when Mike Fox looked back over Saturday's 7-3 loss to Vanderbilt in the College World Series, he assessed it this way: "It was almost a two half game."
That's exactly what it was. In the first five innings, the Tar Heels had a 3-2 lead and had pounded out 10 hits. They'd knocked out Commodore starter Sonny Gray, who had electric stuff but couldn't command it, and were teetering on the edge of putting up a crooked number in the bottom of the fifth that would have stretched the lead and seized the momentum.
Then came the tipping point. For the second straight inning, Carolina loaded the bases with two outs. A similar situation in the fourth had produced one run, the `Dores wiggling out of it with a diving catch by Tony Kemp in left field--the second of three potential run-saving plays made by the Vanderbilt defense--and a strikeout looking.
This time, after a pitching change to lefty Corey Williams with two outs in the fifth, it was another strikeout looking, continuing a trend that saw the Tar Heels strike out nine time with runners on base.
"In that first half of the game we really hurt ourselves by not taking advantage of the opportunities we had the first four or five innings," Fox said.
The eventual totals were painful--11 Carolina hits, seven walks and two hit batters meant 20 baserunners...that were turned into just three runs.
Still, even with the offense chugging along, it felt like the Tar Heels were in decent shape. At that point, no one realized the second half had just begun. "The fifth inning," Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin said, "was the decider." After that frame, Corbin's squad dominated, beginning in the top of the sixth with a game-tying double from Conrad Gregor and then a back-breaking two-run home run from Connor Harrell.
Back-breaking? In the sixth? The Tar Heels still had four more trips to the plate, but you could almost feel the game being decided as Harrell's blast sailed over the fence, over the bullpen, and well up into the left field stands. A celebratory crowd of 22,475 had been boisterous for the first five innings, buoyed by the buzz of a former President, George W. Bush, who threw out the first pitch, and the novelty of the first game at TD Ameritrade Park.
But that was all pre-home run. After the two-run shot, the crowd began to thin out, the electricity began to sag, and the Tar Heels could never quite summon the same momentum they'd had early.
"I felt like the home run deflated us maybe a little more than I expected," Fox said. "We still had plenty of game to play."
They still have plenty of College World Series left to play, as recent opening game losers-turned-national champions Oregon State (2006) and South Carolina (2010) can attest. The road out of the loser's bracket is daunting, which is why Fox said he was taking a much shorter view than what was required to win the entire event. His team has been in first game holes before, notably at Florida State, a place they had experienced minimal success. They won that series with timely pitching and the occasional eye-popping defensive play, which is exactly what they'll need on Monday against the loser of Texas-Florida. Certainly, it will require something out of the ordinary. Playing well at this time of year always does.
"To win this, you don't even look at how many you have to win," Fox said. "You just have to win the next one."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of six books on Carolina basketball, including the official chronicle of the first 100 years of Tar Heel hoops, A Century of Excellence, which is available now. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter.
