University of North Carolina Athletics
GoHeels Exclusive: Be Ready Tomorrow
June 8, 2019 | Baseball, Featured Writers
By Pat James, GoHeels.com
This far along in North Carolina's season, one that's consisted of 63 games, it'd be hard for anyone to call Aaron Sabato a freshman.
Although he's listed as such on the Tar Heels' roster and will continue to be until next spring, the 20-year-old slugger has played in too many games (62), logged too many at-bats (222) and simply found way too much success to still be considered a newcomer to the college game. Ask any pitcher he's faced and they'll likely tell you the same.
Still, this is just his first postseason. And Saturday's 11-7 loss against Auburn was his first in eight postseason games. But many of his teammates possess the vast postseason experience that he currently lacks, and based off what he said after the game, they've appeared to rub off on him.
"It's a series, so it's pretty much like any other series," said Sabato of the three-game NCAA super regional. "You come and you lose the first one, you've got to win the next two. And if you win one, then you've got to win one more to take the series. For us, we're just thinking about coming back and trying to win two games and go to Omaha."
The reward that comes with winning the next two games is much greater than anything Sabato is used to. The situation, however, is not.
Just three weeks ago, UNC was written off as a regional host after dropping four of its last six ACC regular-season games. Two of those losses came at home against NC State by a combined 22-2 score. The Tar Heels responded emphatically, though, reeling off seven straight wins – four en route to the ACC Tournament title and three in the Chapel Hill Regional – before Saturday.
Carolina hopes that experience serves it well against Auburn. But that's not the only experience it can draw upon.
Five times this season, UNC lost the first game of an ACC series. Three times, it bounced back and took the series, 2-1. The last time the Tar Heels won as many regular-season series after losing the opener was in 2008, when they also accomplished the feat three times.
"We've been in a few of them," Mike Fox said. "We've lost some Friday games throughout the regular season and come back and won some series, the Virginia one. So we're not in totally uncharted territory."
No Carolina team, however, has ever lost Game 1 of a super regional and came back to win the next two games. In fact, before Saturday, UNC had only dropped the first game of a super regional once, back in 2003 against South Carolina.
It didn't seem as if the Tar Heels would find themselves in this position when Tyler Baum exited Saturday's game after 6 1/3 innings of exceptional pitching. At that point, Carolina led 4-2. It then extended its lead to three runs in the next frame.Â
But after entering super-regional play having surrendered just eight earned runs in 37 1/3 innings of postseason work, UNC's bullpen allowed nine earned runs between the eighth and ninth innings. As deflating as that might've been, the Tar Heels still rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth and even had the would-be tying run at the plate with two outs and the bases loaded.
"That's why every out and every pitch prior to that is critical to try to keep the score close," Fox said. "We've got some good left-handed hitters off the bench and we're trying to roll our lineup back around to (Michael) Busch and Sabato because they can get us runs on the board pretty quickly. I'm really proud of my team for doing that."
Surely, Fox will even more proud if Carolina can carry its ninth-inning momentum into the next two days and fight back to earn its second straight trip to the College World Series. He knows this team is fully capable of that.
"This group is pretty good at letting things go," Fox said. "That one is going to be tough, but we've got the rest of the day. It is what it is. You've got to stay positive. We talk all the time about how are you going to carry yourself when you leave here? What are you going to say? What is going to come out of your mouth? You've got to be careful with should've, could've, would've.Â
"We win as a team, we lose as a team. That's been our bond. So I won't have to say a whole lot. Our guys will be ready tomorrow."
