University of North Carolina Athletics
Chapel Hill Super Regional: Thursday Notebook
June 7, 2018 | Baseball
By Pat James, GoHeels.com
When the North Carolina baseball team takes the field for Friday's game against Stetson, it will mark the eighth time that Mike Fox has coached UNC in a Super Regional.
The Tar Heels have advanced to the College World Series in their last six Super Regional appearances. Carolina has hosted all six, as will be the case this weekend.
Thus, one could easily look at those numbers and believe UNC, the No. 6 national seed, should have experience on its side against Stetson, which will be playing in its first-ever Super Regional. But no current Tar Heel has played in a Super Regional, either.
"History and tradition don't do you much good right now, in terms of where we are and where our team is," said Fox, who has led Carolina to a Super Regional for the first time since 2013.
"This is (our players') first one. This is (Stetson's) first one. I think maybe the fact that we're playing at home hopefully helps a little bit, but those guys in the locker room, it's all their first one. So we'll see."
Before this weekend's games, held at 11 a.m. Friday and noon on Saturday and Sunday, if necessary, Fox, Michael Busch and Zack Gahagan spoke with reporters Thursday. Here are four other notes off what they said:
'Staggering numbers'
Entering Friday, Stetson (48-11) is on an 18-game winning streak, the longest in the country. And the Hatters' pitching staff is the biggest reason why.
Stetson's 2.50 ERA leads the nation. Three of the team's starters have recorded more than 100 strikeouts; the Hatters have struck out 617 as a team.
"Their pitching numbers, they're scary," Fox said. "Six hundred and (seventeen) strikeouts as a staff? That's mind-boggling. Those are staggering numbers."
Logan Gilbert, a junior right-hander, leads Stetson on the mound. This season, he's gone 11-1 with a 2.52 ERA in 15 starts, with 157 strikeouts and 23 walks in 107 innings. He was named a first-team All-America selection by Baseball America.
On Monday, the Seattle Mariners picked Gilbert with the 14th overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft.
"We're going to get in there and give him a battle as best as we can," Busch said. "We're going to prepare for him just like we have any other pitcher, not more or any less than we have in the past. We've faced some studs before, and we did just fine against them. It will be fun to battle against him."
Maintaining the rotation
Fox confirmed Thursday that Cooper Criswell and Gianluca Dalatri will start Friday and Saturday, respectively. Criswell pitched six shutout innings last Friday against North Carolina A&T. Dalatri allowed one run over five innings last Saturday against Houston.
"We feel like it's best to keep both of those guys on their same rotation," said Fox, who added a starter for Sunday's game, if necessary, will be determined. "I think Luca needs that extra day, just kind of where he is. You've got to win two games to win this thing anyway."
Fox said Dalatri, who has surrendered one run over 14 innings since returning from an injury that sidelined him for 12 weeks, didn't manage his hydration and eating appropriately last week. That will be especially important for Saturday's day game.
"He's a big boy and he loses a lot fluid when he pitches," Fox said. "So he's going to have to manage himself Saturday morning, which I think he will. Because if he's throwing well, I don't want to pull him out in the fifth inning because he's out of gas or dehydrated. I'd prefer to have another reason to take him out."
Getting up for gameday
Fox said that he thought his team would ultimately draw early start times for Super Regional play. So even before those times were officially announced Tuesday morning, he said the players started waking up earlier than usual for practices.
On Thursday, Fox was asked if he had any concerns about playing so early.
"With college students, none whatsoever," he said. "They'll choose sleep over food or anything. We've been getting them up. It is what it is. If they can't get up for this, I can't help them."
But the Boshamer Stadium crowd might.
Single-game tickets for the Super Regional went on sale at noon Thursday. By 3 p.m., Games 1 and 2 were sold out. A limited number of tickets might become available on gameday at the Boshamer Stadium Ticket Office and will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis starting two hours before first pitch.
"I think it's always good to host and be in this environment," Gahagan said. "I think it just gives us a little bit of an advantage because we're around our home crowd and we feel comfortable here."
A record-setting draft class
As the Tar Heels prepared for this weekend's games, the MLB Draft was held Monday through Wednesday.
Ten Carolina players were picked, marking a new school record. The previous record of seven selections had been set in the 1985, 2000, 2009 and 2015 drafts. UNC and South Carolina tied for the fifth-most picks among Division I schools.
"We had a bunch of them drafted (Wednesday) while we were practicing, so we'd stop during practice and celebrate with those guys," Fox said. "It's an exciting moment for all of them, it's a dream come true for all of them and I'm happy for all of them. It's an opportunity for them. They'll focus on still being here and their goal, but that was nice to see all those kids rewarded."
