University of North Carolina Athletics
GoHeels Exclusive: Kicking The Door Down
June 22, 2018 | Baseball, Featured Writers
By Pat James, GoHeels.com
OMAHA, Neb. — They gathered near the team exit at TD Ameritrade Park, hoping to give this North Carolina baseball team the proper sendoff.
About 30 minutes earlier, UNC's season ended with an 11-6 loss against Oregon State. Still, as the clock passed midnight Thursday morning in Omaha, a few dozen parents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters and fans hung around.
They lined up along both sides of the walkway to the team bus. And as the players, some still wiping away tears, trickled out from the somber locker room, they stumbled upon the group of supporters, who incessantly applauded. Some offered handshakes. Others provided a shoulder to cry on. But in the end, their presences alone meant enough.
Mike Fox was the last to leave the locker room. He certainly heard the cheers that echoed through the bowels of the ballpark. And he possibly assumed they were for Oregon State. But after making the final turn for the walkway, he froze at the top of the staircase.
"Aren't y'all supposed to be back at the hotel?" the head coach asked, placing his hands on his face for at least the third time as he surveyed the scene.
But for this team, you'd expect nothing less.
From a 7-7 start to the first College World Series appearance by a Carolina team since 2013, this group of players endeared themselves to fans like only a few of its predecessors have. That made Wednesday night's loss so much more difficult. Fox said as much after the game.
"The end of the season, it stinks," he said. "And it's especially hard when you have such a great group of kids. Probably not one of our most talented teams that we've had at UNC, but perhaps our most unselfish, toughest, grittiest, just determined to get here.
"For me personally, this has probably been one of the most fun seasons I've had because this team has just been so easy to coach. … They were so much fun to be around every day."
And that went well beyond how they played.
Fox loved Michael Busch for his temperament. In a season during which he established himself as one of the nation's top hitters, Busch could have easily become absorbed by the gaudy numbers he posted. But he stayed even-keeled, and his demeanor rubbed off on his teammates.
Fox enjoyed being around Dallas Tessar because of his positivity. One of five junior college transfers, the most Fox ever rostered on one team, Tessar expected to be a member of the Tar Heels' starting infield. But he embraced a move to the outfield. And whether he played or not, he always smiled and picked up his teammates. He also proudly managed the Dose Board.
Fox also liked how Brett Daniels and Zack Gahagan led. They were Carolina's only seniors. But along with Kyle Datres, the high-spunk junior who energized the clubhouse, they showed that they learned from the leaders who came before them and were constant examples of maturity.
"That's what a coach has to have," Fox said. "You have to have players that will do that and help you. And they helped me. These kids really helped me. They helped the other coaches. They made it easy. They made it easy because they got it. They just got it."
Just last week, Robert Woodard likened this year's team to the 2006 squad. The Tar Heels went 17 years without reaching the College World Series before Chad Flack, Andrew Miller and Woodard, among others, helped them make their long-awaited return to Omaha that season. Five more trips followed over the next seven years.
That 2006 team, Woodard said, kicked the door down. It ushered in a new era for Carolina baseball. But before this season, the current players felt like they hadn't lived up to that standard.
Long Beach State eliminated UNC in the 2014 Gainesville Regional. The next two years, the Tar Heels watched the NCAA Tournament from home. Selfishness by some players influenced those results. So the upperclassmen on last year's team set about changing the culture of the program.
That group laid the foundation for this season. And after five years away, a hiatus most schools would envy, Carolina returned to the College World Series. It returned to where it belongs.
"For me, just growing up watching Carolina baseball, they were in Omaha every year," Datres said. "Every year. And when I came in here the first couple of years, it wasn't what Carolina was all about. To be able to get them back here, where we belong in Omaha, to go out the way that we did says a lot. And I think you will see more of the Tar Heels in the next couple of years."
The changes in the clubhouse might have been most critical for the Tar Heels. Yet UNC also found motivation from its past.
As the No. 2 national seed last season, Carolina was one of the favorites to reach Omaha. But two losses in the Chapel Hill Regional dashed that dream. Busch recorded the final out in the season-ending defeat against Davidson. He apologized to Fox after the loss. Later on, Brandon Riley told Fox that he'd wake up from nightmares of being thrown out at home plate for the penultimate out. It took Riley almost all summer to shake them.
As painful as those memories were, they fueled the Tar Heels' run to the College World Series.
"I just think back to those moments now as to why we ended up here," Fox said. "I just think those kids came back in the fall and there was nothing that was going to get in their way of getting us back here. And I think this group will be able to hang their hat on that."
The legacy of this team might not be completely written, though. Like the 2006 team, this year's group could be remembered for not only returning to Omaha, but also for setting a precedent.
The first step in determining that comes next season.
UNC will be without Daniels and Gahagan. It also figures to lose a few key players who were selected in the MLB Draft. Still, Carolina will return two of its leaders in Busch and Freeman, who Fox often referred to as the team's MVP this season. Brandon Martorano and Ashton McGee will also provide experience offensively and in the field.
On the mound, the Tar Heels might feature one of the best 1-2 punches in the country, should Gianluca Dalatri remain healthy and Austin Bergner, a 32nd-round pick by the Arizona Diamondbacks, stay in school. And you have to be excited about how Ben Casparius, Joey Lancellotti and Caden O'Brien improve in Year 2 under Fox and the rest of the coaching staff.
A fresh set of characters will join these familiar favorites, who now know what it takes to reach Omaha. They also understand how to win there.
"You can't practice this or put this in a picture," Fox said. "You gotta experience this just fully. And now they have. So hopefully it works like some other teams we've had where they know what it feels like to be here and the experience and the atmosphere and all that. And that will be the powerful motivator, as we start next year."
It might be hard to realize now. But this year meant something. It meant something to the players, the coaches, the fans and everyone who gathered near the team exit at TD Ameritrade Park. And this group of Tar Heels certainly won't be forgotten.
"I just want kids that have respect for being at the University of North Carolina, I tell them that all the time," Fox said. "This is a special place. And you need to respect being here, act right, do what we ask, represent our program well and graduate, get your degree and help us win a few games along the way.
"It sounds pretty easy, but all these kids have done that. That makes them special in my book."
