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Heels Win Their Most Ever, But the Trophy Goes West Again

Posted on June 5, 2007

No one is questioning Carolina’s arrival among the elite college baseball teams in the country. Two straight appearances in the College World Series finals and another record-breaking season tend to take care of that.

(Photo by Sarah McCarty ’96)

The queries surrounding the Tar Heels are mostly happy ones – will the third time be the charm, will stars with pro potential be tempted to swing aluminum bats for one more round – especially when it was clear almost nobody could have slowed a rolling Oregon State team in Omaha.

Coach Mike Fox ’78 had a question of his own as he got off the bus in Chapel Hill on June 25: “What month is this?” Fox asked about 100 fans with a wry smile. “We’ve been gone a while.”

It had been a while – 14 days, to be exact – but that’s what happens when you keep on winning ball games at the College World Series. In Omaha, on college baseball’s biggest stage, the Heels rallied to defeat Mississippi State, sent an upstart Louisville squad packing and eliminated perennial favorite Rice, all in the span of seven days.

In the elimination game against Rice, a Carolina team not necessarily known for its home run prowess put on a show with four balls hit out of the yard in a 7-4 win over the Owls to advance to the finals for the second year in a row.

It was in the championship series that the Heels finally met their match. Oregon State breezed through its side of the bracket to set up a rematch of last year’s final, only the second time that’s happened in the College World Series’ 61-year history. Oregon State won the opening game 11-4, reminiscent of last year when Carolina took the first game.

But last year the Beavers stormed back and won the last two games to take the title; the Heels could not duplicate that. Oregon State put the kibosh on any hope of a comeback with a 9-3 victory in the second game, making them the fifth team in history to win back-to-back national titles.

UNC was swept in the best-of-three by a red-hot Beavers squad that held a lead in 69 of its last 70 innings played. The only time the Heels were ahead was when Dustin Ackley’s RBI single gave them a 1-0 lead in the first inning of Game 2. And though they had shown their resiliency in dramatic come-from-behind wins over Western Carolina, East Carolina, South Carolina and Mississippi State, there just wasn’t enough magic left for one last rally.

Everyone in a Tar Heel uniform was disappointed to come short again, but the ride home from Omaha gave the group time to reflect on a season of 57 victories, the highest win total in Carolina history and the most wins in college baseball this year. Over the past two seasons, Carolina has posted 111 wins, second in the country only to Rice’s 113.

“My freshman year, our team goals were ‘get 40 wins’ and ‘finish second or third in the ACC,'” said Robert Woodard, the winningest pitcher in Carolina history. “My senior year, across the board our expectations were raised.”

And expectations will continue to rise, as the Heels return next year with ACC Freshman of the Year Ackley, righty Adam Warren (12-0 this season), Adam White and Chad Flack. The possibility loomed in late June that juniors Reid Fronk, Josh Horton and Andrew Carignan could jump to the big leagues.

Carolina has more to look forward to: The team will play most or all of next season in nearby Cary while Boshamer Stadium undergoes a $14 million facelift.

“This team has worked so hard since August to make another run at it,” Woodard said. “We are very proud of what we’ve accomplished.”

As the players lumbered off the bus back into the Carolina summer heat, roughly two weeks since their last home game, they discovered just how many people are proud of what they did and how they represented their school. Many youngsters in the crowd called to “Reid” and “Chad” and “Robert” for autographs and pictures, and so did some adults.

“Great job, guys,” someone in the crowd shouted. “You did the school proud.”

– Daniel David ’07

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