University of North Carolina Athletics
Zack Gahagan is thrilled he returned to Chapel Hill for his senior year and a trip to Omaha.
Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati
GoHeels Exclusive: Pressing On, All The Way To Omaha
June 14, 2018 | Baseball, Featured Writers
By Pat James, GoHeels.com
OMAHA, Neb. — Around this time last year, Zack Gahagan wasn't certain he'd be here.
Gahagan, like several other junior baseball players across the country, faced the decision of staying in college for his senior campaign or signing a professional contract, if selected in the 2017 MLB Draft. And he heavily considered both paths.
At that point, he'd recently finished a junior season that hadn't met his expectations. So returning to North Carolina could help him improve his draft stock. But he also realized that potential alternative could earn him a signing bonus large enough to make leaving UNC worthwhile.
Gahagan debated internally the pros and cons of both options. He also looked to Mike Fox, Scott Forbes, Robert Woodard and Jesse Wierzbicki for advice. All four Tar Heel coaches, Gahagan said, talked to him before the draft. And they all told him the same thing, that they wanted him to return to Chapel Hill for his senior season.
The Cincinnati Reds ultimately picked Gahagan in the 39th round. But by then, he'd already made his decision.
"It's really nice to have that feeling when someone wants you to come back because they think you could be a leader and help them get to Omaha," Gahagan said. "As soon as I got the call that I was drafted, I was like, 'I want to go back to school.' I called Coach Fox and said how I want to go to Omaha and I want to lead this team."
Those words, Gahagan said, are hard to fathom now, as Carolina prepares for its first College World Series appearance since 2013.
UNC overcame multiple obstacles to reach this point; over the last few weeks, no topic has been more discussed in press conferences than the team's 7-7 start. But perhaps no player was better suited to lead the Tar Heels through this season and back to Omaha than Gahagan.
Facing adversity, after all, is something he's well accustomed to.
At North Henderson High School, Gahagan was an All-Western North Carolina Athletic Conference selection in baseball, basketball and football as a junior. But as a senior in the fall of 2013, he tore the ACL in his left knee playing basketball. The injury sidelined him for his entire baseball season. And when he enrolled at UNC, he still wasn't completely healthy.
Gahagan fully recovered from the injury, though, before his freshman season. He appeared in 52 games, highlighted by 41 total starts at first and third base. But he struggled adjusting at times.
"Coach put me in a big spot in the lineup, and I really didn't know how to handle it," Gahagan said. "He would also sit me some games, and I had to learn how to deal with it. In high school, I wouldn't know how to deal with it if I got sat."
Yet he learned with time.
As a sophomore, Gahagan established himself as a key cog in the middle of the Tar Heels' lineup, batting .297 with with six doubles, five home runs and 34 RBIs. He subsequently turned in a solid summer in the Cape Cod League. Then came his greatest challenge yet.
In the summer, Gahagan said he noticed a swollen lymph node near his right armpit. He wasn't sure what it was. But he kept playing.
When he returned to UNC in the fall of 2016, he told head athletic trainer Terri Jo Rucinski about the swollen mass, which had grown larger over time. She expressed concern. Yet Gahagan asked if they could wait two weeks to see if it would disappear before visiting a doctor.
"I was playing well at that time, and I didn't want to mess anything up," he said. "She actually surprised me one practice and said, 'I want to get that checked out,' and we went and got it checked. And sure enough, it was a blood clot."
Gahagan said he initially didn't want to undergo surgery. But it was imperative. A 12-inch vein in his chest needed to be reconstructed, and an adjacent muscle was removed.
"If it wasn't for her," said Gahagan of Rucinski, "I would not have been doing well if that blood clot had extended its area."
When he first returned to baseball activities after his surgery, Gahagan said he couldn't even swing the bat. He eventually built up to that. But he'd feel strong one day and not the next. His arm would hurt, and then it wouldn't.
Still, he kept playing. And after spending a majority of his first two seasons at the corner infield positions, he embraced a move to second base.
Gahagan batted .243 with nine doubles, seven home runs and 42 RBIs as a junior to help Carolina reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013. He appeared in 62 games and started all but one. His experience, the coaching staff thought, could be key this season.
"He knows what it takes to handle the ebbs and flows of being a Carolina baseball player," Woodard said, "just in the classroom, off the field, socially and being coached by our coaching staff. Especially losing Logan Warmoth, we all thought it would be really important if we could keep a big piece up the middle.
"I just couldn't be more thrilled that he chose to come back, because he didn't have to."
Gahagan said Adam Pate was the player who he and his teammates looked up to in his first three seasons. Pate always led by example. And in many ways, Pate's senior speech at the 2017 First Pitch Dinner, during which he said that team would change the program's recent culture, set the tone for the past two seasons.
But with Pate's graduation last year, someone needed to fill his void. Gahagan desired that role. He wanted to help maintain the Tar Heels' momentum.
So when Gahagan delivered the senior speech at the First Pitch Dinner in January, he followed in the footsteps of Pate and other seniors he'd listened to over the previous three years.
"I cannot express in words how much we all appreciate how much you invest in us," said Gahagan to the room full of teammates, coaches, donors and fans. "I'm beyond ready to begin this season and make that trip to Omaha in my senior year."
It took three wins in the Chapel Hill Regional and two more over an unrelenting Stetson squad last weekend. But Gahagan's words came true. And entering Saturday's College World Series opener against Oregon State, he might be playing the best he has all season.
Before the Virginia Tech series, which began May 17, Gahagan was batting .196 (10-for-51) over his previous 15 games. Around then, he received some advice from a former coach.
"He kind of just gave me a call and said, 'Hey, man, just go out there and have fun, because you don't get these days back,'" Gahagan said. "At the time, the draft kind of goes through your head. But I was still focused on the year and getting our team to Omaha."
He's proven vital in achieving that.
Over his last 10 games, Gahagan has hit .424 (14-for-33) with a team-best three home runs and nine RBIs. Much of that damage has come during the NCAA Tournament.
Along the way, he started his 200th career game against Georgia Tech on May 25. Only nine other players who have played for Carolina since 2001 have reached that mark – the others are Chad Prosser, Sean Farrell, Greg Mangum, Chad Flack, Seth Williams, Tim Federowicz, Dustin Ackley, Ben Bunting and Chaz Frank.
At times, that milestone might not have seemed reachable for Gahagan. But the hardships he faced never bested him. He always pressed on.
"Coming into this year, I dealt with adversity last year and years before that," Gahagan said. "So it just helped me this year with the times I did not have success. All those years in the past, they just build up and they've helped me kind of lead this team this year in a way that has gotten us to Omaha."
OMAHA, Neb. — Around this time last year, Zack Gahagan wasn't certain he'd be here.
Gahagan, like several other junior baseball players across the country, faced the decision of staying in college for his senior campaign or signing a professional contract, if selected in the 2017 MLB Draft. And he heavily considered both paths.
At that point, he'd recently finished a junior season that hadn't met his expectations. So returning to North Carolina could help him improve his draft stock. But he also realized that potential alternative could earn him a signing bonus large enough to make leaving UNC worthwhile.
Gahagan debated internally the pros and cons of both options. He also looked to Mike Fox, Scott Forbes, Robert Woodard and Jesse Wierzbicki for advice. All four Tar Heel coaches, Gahagan said, talked to him before the draft. And they all told him the same thing, that they wanted him to return to Chapel Hill for his senior season.
The Cincinnati Reds ultimately picked Gahagan in the 39th round. But by then, he'd already made his decision.
"It's really nice to have that feeling when someone wants you to come back because they think you could be a leader and help them get to Omaha," Gahagan said. "As soon as I got the call that I was drafted, I was like, 'I want to go back to school.' I called Coach Fox and said how I want to go to Omaha and I want to lead this team."
Those words, Gahagan said, are hard to fathom now, as Carolina prepares for its first College World Series appearance since 2013.
UNC overcame multiple obstacles to reach this point; over the last few weeks, no topic has been more discussed in press conferences than the team's 7-7 start. But perhaps no player was better suited to lead the Tar Heels through this season and back to Omaha than Gahagan.
Facing adversity, after all, is something he's well accustomed to.
At North Henderson High School, Gahagan was an All-Western North Carolina Athletic Conference selection in baseball, basketball and football as a junior. But as a senior in the fall of 2013, he tore the ACL in his left knee playing basketball. The injury sidelined him for his entire baseball season. And when he enrolled at UNC, he still wasn't completely healthy.
Gahagan fully recovered from the injury, though, before his freshman season. He appeared in 52 games, highlighted by 41 total starts at first and third base. But he struggled adjusting at times.
"Coach put me in a big spot in the lineup, and I really didn't know how to handle it," Gahagan said. "He would also sit me some games, and I had to learn how to deal with it. In high school, I wouldn't know how to deal with it if I got sat."
Yet he learned with time.
As a sophomore, Gahagan established himself as a key cog in the middle of the Tar Heels' lineup, batting .297 with with six doubles, five home runs and 34 RBIs. He subsequently turned in a solid summer in the Cape Cod League. Then came his greatest challenge yet.
In the summer, Gahagan said he noticed a swollen lymph node near his right armpit. He wasn't sure what it was. But he kept playing.
When he returned to UNC in the fall of 2016, he told head athletic trainer Terri Jo Rucinski about the swollen mass, which had grown larger over time. She expressed concern. Yet Gahagan asked if they could wait two weeks to see if it would disappear before visiting a doctor.
"I was playing well at that time, and I didn't want to mess anything up," he said. "She actually surprised me one practice and said, 'I want to get that checked out,' and we went and got it checked. And sure enough, it was a blood clot."
Gahagan said he initially didn't want to undergo surgery. But it was imperative. A 12-inch vein in his chest needed to be reconstructed, and an adjacent muscle was removed.
"If it wasn't for her," said Gahagan of Rucinski, "I would not have been doing well if that blood clot had extended its area."
When he first returned to baseball activities after his surgery, Gahagan said he couldn't even swing the bat. He eventually built up to that. But he'd feel strong one day and not the next. His arm would hurt, and then it wouldn't.
Still, he kept playing. And after spending a majority of his first two seasons at the corner infield positions, he embraced a move to second base.
Gahagan batted .243 with nine doubles, seven home runs and 42 RBIs as a junior to help Carolina reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013. He appeared in 62 games and started all but one. His experience, the coaching staff thought, could be key this season.
"He knows what it takes to handle the ebbs and flows of being a Carolina baseball player," Woodard said, "just in the classroom, off the field, socially and being coached by our coaching staff. Especially losing Logan Warmoth, we all thought it would be really important if we could keep a big piece up the middle.
"I just couldn't be more thrilled that he chose to come back, because he didn't have to."
Gahagan said Adam Pate was the player who he and his teammates looked up to in his first three seasons. Pate always led by example. And in many ways, Pate's senior speech at the 2017 First Pitch Dinner, during which he said that team would change the program's recent culture, set the tone for the past two seasons.
But with Pate's graduation last year, someone needed to fill his void. Gahagan desired that role. He wanted to help maintain the Tar Heels' momentum.
So when Gahagan delivered the senior speech at the First Pitch Dinner in January, he followed in the footsteps of Pate and other seniors he'd listened to over the previous three years.
"I cannot express in words how much we all appreciate how much you invest in us," said Gahagan to the room full of teammates, coaches, donors and fans. "I'm beyond ready to begin this season and make that trip to Omaha in my senior year."
It took three wins in the Chapel Hill Regional and two more over an unrelenting Stetson squad last weekend. But Gahagan's words came true. And entering Saturday's College World Series opener against Oregon State, he might be playing the best he has all season.
Before the Virginia Tech series, which began May 17, Gahagan was batting .196 (10-for-51) over his previous 15 games. Around then, he received some advice from a former coach.
"He kind of just gave me a call and said, 'Hey, man, just go out there and have fun, because you don't get these days back,'" Gahagan said. "At the time, the draft kind of goes through your head. But I was still focused on the year and getting our team to Omaha."
He's proven vital in achieving that.
Over his last 10 games, Gahagan has hit .424 (14-for-33) with a team-best three home runs and nine RBIs. Much of that damage has come during the NCAA Tournament.
Along the way, he started his 200th career game against Georgia Tech on May 25. Only nine other players who have played for Carolina since 2001 have reached that mark – the others are Chad Prosser, Sean Farrell, Greg Mangum, Chad Flack, Seth Williams, Tim Federowicz, Dustin Ackley, Ben Bunting and Chaz Frank.
At times, that milestone might not have seemed reachable for Gahagan. But the hardships he faced never bested him. He always pressed on.
"Coming into this year, I dealt with adversity last year and years before that," Gahagan said. "So it just helped me this year with the times I did not have success. All those years in the past, they just build up and they've helped me kind of lead this team this year in a way that has gotten us to Omaha."
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