College Baseball: Tar Heels feel at home in Omaha
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, June 11, 2008
By Joedy McCreary
Associated Press
CHAPEL HILL ó Day after day, North Carolina’s players piled onto the bus carrying them 15 miles to their temporary home field, taking a route that serpentined past the construction site where their renovated ballpark would be.
During those 36 gameday trips to Team USA’s complex in Cary, they caught glimpses of what was becoming the new Boshamer Stadium. Some players allowed themselves to daydream about the future at their new park, but they never lost sight of the present.
“That was an emphasis that we weren’t going to dwell on ó ‘Well, what would our stats be if we played in Boshamer?’ ” center fielder Seth Williams said Tuesday. “We’re going to have to do it; we might as well get accustomed to it. I think we did, and it ended up being pretty good.”
That focus wound up earning UNC a third straight trip to the now-familiar surroundings at Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium, home of the College World Series.
“Coach (Mike Fox) kind of got on us about not using that as an excuse,” first baseman Dustin Ackley said. “We just kind of took it and relaxed and let the year play out, and it’s kind of worked to our advantage.”
Those 35-minute commutes each way to the Raleigh suburbs clearly didn’t affect the Tar Heels, who rolled to a 30-6 home record while sweeping both their regional and super regional series at USA Baseball’s training facility.
By next year, the $25 million renovation at Boshamer Stadium is expected to be complete. For now, North Carolina (51-12) is hoping to once again make itself at home at Rosenblatt.
The Tar Heels begin play Sunday against an LSU team in Omaha for the first time since 2004. They hope their status as the only team to reach the CWS in each of the past three years gives them an edge because of their familiarity with the hardness of the infield, the slope of the mound and the space in foul territory down the lines.
“I think we’ll be more comfortable, at least me personally,” said second baseman Kyle Seager, a sophomore out of Northwest Cabarrus preparing for his second trip to the CWS. “When you first get there, it’s absolutely overwhelming. You go out (during) that practice time, you’re sitting there looking around, you see all these stands (and think), ‘There’s no way this place will be full.’ And then you play, and you get that first at-bat underneath your belt.”
Another reason for familiarity: The top three seeds still playing are from the ACC, including No. 1 Miami, the No. 2 Tar Heels and No. 4 Florida State.
“Everybody’s kind of been questioning the talent in the ACC, and it’s really big just to get a majority of the teams to Omaha,” Ackley said.
North Carolina vows that no longer is it enough just to get to Omaha. After finishing second twice, the Tar Heels said they are determined to claim their first national title in the sport.