CHAPEL HILL - The morning after North Carolina lost in the College World Series championship for the second consecutive season, coach Mike Fox received a phone call from Mike Martin -- who had coached Florida State to 12 Omaha berths, but never won a national title.

"If you let this, it will eat you alive," Martin told Fox last June. "Don't let it."

Which is why, as UNC players talk about taking care of "unfinished business" during their third straight trip to Rosenblatt Stadium, Fox wants them to concentrate -- and appreciate -- the opportunity at hand. The No. 2 Tar Heels will play No. 7 LSU on Sunday.

"I don't want them to be too business-like," said Fox, who was the starting second baseman on Carolina's 1978 CWS team. "I want them to be careful about that, because I want them to smile and enjoy it; I want to be careful about how badly they think they want it."

That might be easier said than done.

Senior third baseman Chad Flack said it's hard not to "get a bit sour," when he looks back at how close the Tar Heels came to winning national titles in 2006 and 2007.

His sophomore year, the Tar Heels won their first three games of the double-elimination round, then beat Oregon State in the first game of the best-of-three championship series before the Beavers rallied to win the final two games.

Last season, Carolina worked its way back to a rematch with Oregon State through the losers' bracket, only to lose its first two games in the championship series.

"We keep telling ourselves, 'We have unfinished business to take care of,' " Flack said. "We're going to enjoy it as we go, but we're also going to know that we have to go out there, play well. ... And I think that if we go out there and play up to our capability, I believe we will win."

It won't be easy, though, even with the nation's best ERA and memories of the Beavers (who didn't make the NCAA field of 64 this season) firing UNC's determination.

Unlike, say, the NFL's Buffalo Bills -- which lost four straight Super Bowls from 1990-93 -- college baseball programs have ever-changing lineups year-to-year, thanks to the major league draft and graduation. That makes it harder to consistently advance, much less win titles.

And unlike, say, the UCLA men's basketball program -- which failed to win an NCAA title in the three most recent Final Fours -- college baseball teams face an eight-team, double-elimination format before the best-of-three championship series. That means they must win five or six games in a two-week period -- after advancing through two weekends of regional and super regional play.

That makes winning the NCAA baseball title a challenge, but a worthy one considering the UNC seniors would rather not have their accomplishments lumped in with those of the Bills and Bruins.

"We've been blessed, getting there three years in a row," center fielder Seth Williams said. "But the upperclassmen, especially, we're not satisfied to get there; anything that's not a national championship just wouldn't do it for us."

Which is just the sentiment Fox wants to avoid.

The coach said he wants his team to stay loose by enjoying the Omaha experience, to win by focusing on each individual game instead of whether they can earn the final trophy.

"I'm going to do everything I can, if there is any pressure, to personally not feel it and for our players not to feel it, because I don't think that's fair," Fox said. "We all want to win; it's a given that we want to win a national championship in baseball for the University of North Carolina.

"But I'm not going to let myself think about the last couple of years. I don't want to ruin day-to-day, or this year, by thinking 'we have to do it' or 'we came so close.' I'm realistic enough to know that I could coach here another 20 years and take another 10 teams there and not win it."

After all, he was reminded of that by FSU's Martin -- who will also be in Omaha -- trying for the 13th time to win the NCAA title.

WHITE GETS THE CALL: Sophomore right-hander Alex White (10-3) will start for UNC in the opener against LSU on Sunday, Fox said.

White has allowed just four runs in 16 innings during his two NCAA starts this season.

Fox has not announced the rest of the Tar Heels' starting rotation.