Tar Heels get another shot

Great team chemistry, a desire to find a way to win and a tenacious work ethic both on and off of the diamond have helped put the North Carolina baseball team right back where it wants to be, at the College World Series with a chance to win it all

CHAPEL HILL -- After North Carolina defeated South Carolina in the super regional finals Sunday night, Tar Heels coach Mike Fox did what he always does following a victory.

He sent text messages to prospects.

That partly explains how Fox, amid little fanfare and in a basketball boomtown, has built a national baseball power that plays Mississippi State today at 7 p.m. in the first round of the College World Series.

The Tar Heels are back in Omaha, Neb. -- where they were runners up last season -- despite losing stellar pitchers Andrew Miller and Daniel Bard, first round picks in the 2006 big league draft.

Reaching the CWS in back-to-back years is a rarity. Only two other ACC teams -- Florida State and Clemson -- have accomplished the feat.

Wake Forest is the lone team to win a national title (in 1955) while playing as a member of the conference.

Now, these are the best of times for the Tar Heels, who parlayed surprising pitching, solid hitting, an improved defense and a refuse-to-lose mentality into a 53-13 season.

"I knew we had good players, knew we had tough kids and that they knew how to get on a big stage and produce,'' Fox said. "It has not been surprising to me."

Led by senior right-hander Robert Woodard (10-2) and a dependable bullpen featuring All-America closer Andrew Carignan and middle reliever Rob Wooten, Carolina's 3.30 ERA is the sixth lowest in Division I and matches the mark of last year's staff.

Sophomore Luke Putkonen (7-1) and freshman Alex White (6-5) emerged to fill gargantuan holes in the starting rotation, although both have floundered so far in this tournament, a troubling trend.

Several precocious freshmen also cracked the regular lineup this year, providing what junior shortstop Josh Horton dubbed an "unbelievable" boost.

Rookie Dustin Ackley leads all hitters with a .416 average, though he is currently in a 4-for-22 playoff slump. First-year players Kyle Seager (.311) and Tim Fedroff (.344) also add offensive clout.

"One through nine we can swing the bat with anybody,'' said Reid Fronk, a .327 batter who is among eight starters hitting .301 or higher.

The Tar Heels are snagging flies and scooping grounders with more flair and less flaws, too. In 66 games they've made just 67 errors compared to 96 a year ago.

But there's more to these Tar Heels than pitching, hitting and fielding.

They've got experience, with 18 players having competed in the 2006 Series.

They've got chemistry, camaraderie and stable leadership from upperclassmen like Woodard, Horton and Chad Flack, whose play at third base helped solidify the infield.

"This team has really been fun," said Fox, who remembers the strife of 2005 when several freshmen started and bench-riding upperclassmen weren't happy. "[This] team is close. We don't have a lazy player. We have all the ingredients of a true team, and we have talent."

The Tar Heels also have resiliency, the will to win, somehow, some way. In four regional wins, they've come from behind.

What's driving them?

"You can't forget [last year]," Flack said. "It's the one thing that drove us from day one. We want to be in that final game again. I think we have the best team. We want the big [trophy] this time. "

Fox also hopes the success of the past two seasons, a new 4,000-seat Boshamer Stadium, and national exposure from another trip to the CWS will make Carolina baseball a more popular pastime among its fans.

The super regional in Chapel Hill sold out and the atmosphere was electric. But Fox would like for more vociferous students to join the older fans -- and for his team to keep entertaining them by winning.

Fox, cognizant that slippage can happen quickly, knows sustaining the recruiting trend of recent seasons is imperative to remaining among the nation's elite. Carolina has landed two of the country's top six freshman classes in the past four years, according to Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.

"I have two of the best recruiters in [assistants] Chad Holbrook and Scott Forbes," Fox said. "They are relentless. You have to be. We are text-messaging five minutes after we win, asking 'did you watch us?' You can't take a day off [from recruiting]."

That approach is a big reason the Tar Heels are in Omaha now, swinging for the fences again and trying to snag the "big trophy" that slipped from their gloves last year.