ASU 12 UNC 5

Brian Barbour on June 19th, 2009 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)

Well that did not go well at all.

And it started out so promising too with a 4-0 lead.  Then the pitching fell apart in ways that, quite frankly, should never be discussed again. Ever.

Needless to say when you look up the word “snakebit” in the dictionary you will see a picture of Brian Moran pitching at the College World Series.  I feel bad for Moran, especially since all the damage done to him was by the same ASU batter, Kyle Calhoun who tagged him for a three run homer on Sunday and a grand slam in this one to erase a 4-0 lead and set the stage for what happened next.

The offense was not much better.  Dustin Ackley went quietly into that good night with a paltry 1-5 showing and a run scored.  Kyler Seager, Garrett Gord and Mark Fluery were a combined 4-14 to go along with Ackley’s one hit performance.

Given what the Heels lose this probably marks the last CWS appearance for the next couple of years.  Mike Fox will need to rebuild his roster which hopefully will include some guys who can hold it together in Omaha should the Heels get back there in the future.  All that aside, it has been a remarkable four year run and since we are talking about baseball, which is so fickle, even random in nature it is difficult to be too hard on these guys.  Two 2nd place finishes and being there two other times in four years is quality work no matter what.

And should the ABCers among you give you any flack be sure to ask them which sports have they been in national title contention in this past year.  For UNC it has been a banner sports year in that regard.

Or just tell them to “kiss the ring.”

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Category: College World Series, UNC Baseball

5 comments to ASU 12 UNC 5

• HeelYeah

  June 19, 2009 at 11:47 am

  I usually tell the ABCers to kiss something else, and it ain’t a ring. However, “kiss the ring” is G-rated so I guess that is better.

• Santiago

  June 19, 2009 at 12:00 pm

  Both losses to ASU your heartbreaking, but Texas did the same thing to the Sun Devils in the game in between. Baseball is just that kind of game.

  I’ll take elite achievement (i.e., 0-4 in 4 years at the CWS) any day over mediocrity (i.e., not making the NCAA field). Talking smack about how the ‘Heels can’t win at Omaha is just sour grapes from our ABC friends who favor less successful programs.

  And I’ll say it again… Congratulations to Coach Fox and the 2009 Diamond ‘Heels on another terrific season! I suspect ‘Heels fans will miss losing in Omaha for the next few seasons, but I hope I’m wrong.

  I believe the final Mike Fox show will be this Monday at Tyler’s in Carrboro at 7pm. I hope ‘Heels fans will join me there to show support for all he and the team have done in the past several seasons.

• TheSportsIdiot

  June 19, 2009 at 4:22 pm

  You guys are obsessed…

  Congrats to the Heels on another great year on the diamond. Baseball is arguably the hardest sport in the land, and making it to Omaha is tremendous. Best of luck next year.

• Andy In Omaha

  June 20, 2009 at 12:39 am

  Ouch.
  Sometimes, you have to wonder if certain things are never meant to be, and it seems like UNC bringing a title back to Chapel Hill from Omaha is one of them.
  Even though Mrs. Andy In Omaha was in attendance, this game was all about squandered opportunities and a team that played out of itself once it got to the big stage. Jacob Stallings, arguably the Heels’ weakest offensive option in the lineup, had two excellent sacrifice bunts that went for two RBI, then he beat out an infield hit. The UNC batters seemed to get agressive on Josh Spence early on in the count, and it seemed like they were in business.
  Pitching is where games are won and lost at all levels of baseball once you get closer to determining a champion, and the bullpen for UNC was just not good enough. Don’t get me wrong, having a starter throwing four wild pitches is bad enough, but when Mike Fox went through guys who couldn’t find the plate you know it was going to get ugly in a hurry.
  The big question, however, is that why were Alex White or Adam Warren not brought into the game after the grand slam? I understand that Mike Fox had to think about a potential game against Texas tonight, but you have to know your personnel and who gives you the best chance to win. I think White or Warren could have gone two innings to avoid the eight run flood gate and had enough to go tonight as well.
  In short, the curse of Mrs. Andy In Omaha attending UNC games at the CWS continues, as the Heels are now 1-4 when she is in attendance.
  The night was not all for nothing, however. As we were leaving, I had the opportunity to see the UNC players in front of the dugout and hear Fox, Dustin Ackley, and others thank all the fans for their support. I also met a lot of people that travelled from the greatest state in the country and hope they come back next year. The merchandise was knocked down 50%, so my wife and I bought nine t-shirts for only $35.
  And thanks to my wife giving me a heads up through a cell phone call, I got to walk out of the stadium next to Roy Williams. I couldn’t believe it. I was there, walking stride for stride with Roy Williams. The cool thing was that he was walking with his wife among everyone else, no security, no cameras, no media. I didn’t say anything for fear of a scene, but that was the highlight of the night for me.

• william

  June 20, 2009 at 11:36 am

  Perhaps more than any other team sport, excellence in baseball can only be measured over the course of months, not in short, little play-offs or round-robins. The team that won the most games in major league history in the regular season didn’t even make it to the World Series.

  And the Washington Nationals beat the New York Yankees two games out of there at Yankee Stadium this week. Ask yourself it the Detroit Lions could ever beat Pittsburgh two out of three. No, football is a dominant sport and things like that rarely happen. It would be more likely in basketball but still unusual, as well as in soccer and hockey.

  But in baseball, things like that happen all the time and probably even more so now due to pitch counts. In the old days, a great pitcher could carry you but now they are so worried about guys’ arms that they yank them early.

  Anyway, it was a great season and what Dean Smith used to say about the NCAA tournament(honestly, with the exception of 1998, and that is close, I am not sure that Carolina has ever had the best basketball team and not won it all, but that is for a different discussion, lol), is probably much more true for college baseball:

  They sacrifice the reliability of the outcome, i.e., having the best team win, for the excitement of having a short round-robin tournament. It is a bit of a crapshoot and we have seen UNC have some incredible good fortune and some horrible disappointment.

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