This Day In Tar Heel Baseball History: June 7

CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina looks at "On This Day in Tar Heel History", as Tom Jensen shares his memories as an avid Tar Heel fan and regular at Boshamer Stadium.

June 7
For today's version of 'This Day in Recent Carolina Baseball History' we go back to 2008 and 2009 for a sweltering Super Regional opening win in Cary and a dominant clincher against ECU highlighted by a special performance from Garrett Gore in his final career game in Chapel Hill that sent the Heels to Omaha for an amazing fourth year in a row.

Almost any time two Diamond Heel fans get to talking to each other about the 2008 super against Coastal Carolina in Cary they start in the same place: 'that was the hottest I've ever been!' It was indeed sweltering. Fortunately when the Heels kicked things off against the Chanticleers on June 7, 2008 that heat extended to their bats.

Alex White threw a 1-2-3 1st with a pair of strikeouts to kick off the game and the Heels wasted no time getting things going in the bottom of the inning. Dustin Ackley reached on an error leading off and with 1 out Tim Fedroff singled to put two runners on base. A Chad Flack grounder moved them both into scoring position with 2 outs for Kyle Seager.

Kyle fell behind 1-2, took a ball to even up the count, fouled off a pitch, fouled off another pitcher, and on the 7th pitch of the at bat singled to score Dusty and Tim and give the Heels an early 2-0 lead.

Alex threw a 1-2-3 2nd. Tim Federowicz singled to lead off the bottom half and Coastal proceeded to make errors on two plays in a row to allow him to come all the way home and make it a 3-0 lead.

Alex finally allowed a base runner to lead off the 3rd but then he retired the side in order with a couple of strikeouts to keep the Chanticleers off the board. They finally got a run in the 4th to get within 3-1 but Alex followed that up with a scoreless 5th to get to the halfway point of the game still up by a pair of runs.

In the bottom of the 5th Dustin Ackley and Kyle Shelton hit back to back doubles to lead off the inning, bringing Dusty around to score and getting the lead back to 3 runs at 4-1. Alex threw a scoreless 6th, working around a 1 out single.

In the 6th and then the 7th the Heels started to blow the game open. Seth Williams hit a solo shot with 1 out in the 6th to make it 5-1. After that Ryan Graepel and Dustin Ackley both worked full counts before drawing walks. Kyle Shelton- playing the last home weekend of his career- came up with another big hit, singling to score Ryan and extend the edge to 6-1.

Alex threw a scoreless 7th, again not allowing anything other than a quickly stranded 1 out single. In the bottom of the inning Kyle Seager reached on an error and Tim Federowicz doubled on the next pitch to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. Seth Williams singled to score Kyle and make it 7–1. Later in the inning another run came around on an error to push it to 8-1.

In the 8th Coastal scored 3 runs to get back within 8-4 and still had runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out and a chance to keep chipping away at the lead. But Rob Wooten came on for the Heels and got a fly out and a strikeout to end the threat.

Rob came back out for the 9th and got the first couple outs, sandwiched around a pair of walks. He struck out the last Chanticleer hitter of the game swinging to get the Heels within one game of Omaha and to send everyone back to their air conditioning.

Alex got the win to go to 10-3 for the year. Rob didn't get a save because the Heels were up by too much when he came in but his 1.2 scoreless innings with 3 strikeouts to close out the game constituted a save like performance.

The Heels attack was led by guys playing their last home weekend in a UNC uniform. Senior Seth Williams led the way with 3 hits, including a home run, 2 RBI, and 2 runs. Senior Kyle Shelton (including a double and 2 RBI) and outgoing junior high round draft pick Tim Federowicz (including a double and a run) each had a pair of hits. Dustin Ackley had a double and 2 runs, Kyle Seager had a single, drove in a pair of runs, and scored one and Tim Fedroff had a single and a run to round out the hits.

On June 7, 2009 the Heels were 1-0 in their super against East Carolina at the Bosh and hoping to clinch their 4th trip to Omaha in a row. It was also the last game ever at home for a lot of special players- that included seniors starting pitcher Adam Warren and RF Garrett Gore who had each been around for the entire Omaha run and it was also the last one for Dustin Ackley, Kyle Seager, and Mark Fleury who were all high round draft picks.

Adam threw a scoreless 1st and 2nd, striking out 3 across his first 2 innings. Garrett Gore got things going for the offense with a single to lead off the 3rd. Mike Cavasinni who would stay on another year but had come in with the 2006 class and was very much part of the four year Omaha run bunted him over to 2nd. With 2 outs Ben Bunting and Dustin Ackley walked to load the bases and then Kyle Seager hit the first pitch he saw right back up the middle to score Garrett and Ben and give the Heels an early 2-0 lead.

Adam gave up a leadoff single in the 3rd, then got a double play. He threw a 1-2-3 4th. He worked around a 2 out single for a scoreless 5th.

Mark Fleury hit a leadoff double in the 6th and Garrett Gore followed with a single to put runners on the corners with no one out. Mike Cavasinni singled to score Mark. 3-0. Seth Baldwin hit a grounder to bring in Garrett. 4-0. Ben Bunting drew a walk to put 2 runners on base.

That brought up Dustin Ackley, who is the best player in the history of Carolina Baseball, there is really not much to argue about. He holds a lot of the program's all time career hitting records- even though he was only in college for three years. He did more in three years than anyone else has done in 4 years.

If you've forgotten just how amazing he was, let's review some of the numbers. He hit over .400 all three years- .402 his freshman year, .417 both his sophomore and junior years. His OPS went from 1.039 to 1.100 to 1.280 over the course of his career as he flashed more power. He had over 30 extra base hits every year he was in the program, peaking with 44 his junior year that included 22 home runs. He had over 100 hits all three years. He scored over 70 runs all three years. He walked 50 times or more each of his last two years, allowing him to finish with OBP's of .503 and .517 respectively those years. You get the idea- he was insanely good.

In his final career home game he made his mark one last time. With 2 runners on he crushed one out to left for a 3 run blast. The Heels led 7-0. It was an appropriate capstone to an incredible 3 years for him in Chapel Hill.

After all that time sitting watching his teammates hit Adam came back out and quickly threw a 1-2-3 6th. In the 7th the Gore-Cavasinni duo struck again. They hit back to back 1 out singles, Cavi's moving Garrett to 3rd. A Seth Baldwin sac fly brought him home to make it 8-0.

Adam allowed a couple 2 out singles in the 7th, then got a strikeout to end the threat. The Pirates finally put 3 runs on the board in the 8th but Adam got to walk off the mound in his final appearance at the Bosh to a roaring ovation in appreciation of a career where he went an incredible 32-4. He struck out 8 in 7.1 strong innings on this day to earn the win and go to 9-2 on the season.

The Heels were the 'road' team in this game at the Bosh which I generally think is a silly NCAA rule but it worked out well here because it meant the Heels got to bat in the 9th and that provided the most memorable moment of the game.

With 2 outs in the 9th Garrett Gore came up for his final ever at bat in Chapel Hill. He'd had quite a rollercoaster of a career. His freshman year he hit .227 with an OPS of .551. Then he made an incredible leap his sophomore year, improving to .324 with an OPS of .769. His junior year was tough- his offense regressed to .275 with a .658 OPS and in the middle of the season he completely lost his ability to throw the ball to 1st, meaning he couldn't play short anymore.

Garrett learned to play RF for his senior year. And he was incredible at it- he won a series against Clemson by bringing what would have been a 9th inning home run back over the fence, and he repeatedly picked guys off first from the outfield. It's pretty unusual for a guy to have a memorable season of defense in right field, but Garrett's one year out there is an exception to the rule. He was awesome in that role that he had to take on in the wake of adversity.

As things got better with his fielding his senior year they got better with his hitting too. He went back to .311 and a .771 OPS, similar to his strong sophomore year.

The crowd gave Garrett yet another of the day's rousing ovations as the fans said goodbye to the guys who had made the Diamond Heels a power house. He already had three hits on the day. And his final at bat provided a story book ending- he crushed the last pitch ever thrown to him at the Bosh out of the park to center for a home run to grow the Heels lead to 9-4. Can't make that kind of ending up.

Brian Moran threw a scoreless 9th to conclude his own amazing Tar Heel career and send the Heels on to Omaha for the 4th year in a row with a rout of their in state rival. The win made the Heels an incredible 18–1 in postseason home games under Coach Fox and made this particular version of the team 47-16 on the season.

Garrett led the way for the Heels with 4 hits, including the home run, scoring 4 times. Mark Fleury (including a double and a run) and Mike Cavasinni (including an RBI) each had a pair of hits.

Dustin Ackley had a home run and drove in 3 runs, Kyle Seager singled and drove in a pair, Ben Bunting singled and scored twice, and Ryan Graepel and Levi Michael each had a single. 8 of 9 Heels starters had a hit and Seth Baldwin had 2 RBI and a run even without a hit.

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