The college baseball season has started and I don't believe coach Mike Fox and the North Carolina Tarheels baseball team receive enough credit for bringing attention to the University of North Carolina. They have made several College World Series appearances and came within a game of winning the title a few years ago.
Coach Fox recruits very well nationally and very often this works against him. Many of his recruits are top draft picks in the Major League draft every year and sign professional contracts rather than spend a minimum of three years in college. Many recent players such as Andrew Miller, Alex White, Matt Harvey, and Dustin Ackley have played their college careers out and have been very high draft picks in the Major League draft and the latter three are on the verge of making their major league debuts.
The 'Heels had their opening series last weekend in a tournament in southern California against some solid competition and came away with a 4-0 sweep, including a 4-3 victory against #8 Cal State-Fullerton. Right now, pitching seems to be the 'Heels strong suit this early in the season. They don't seem to have the big bats they have had in years past and they may have to play more situational baseball, some hit-and-run, take more cances on the basepaths. A little bit of old school baseball.
Junior Levi Michael had a great first series leading the team with a .500 batting average and 4 stolen bases. Junior Jacob Stallings led the team with a homer and 5 RBI's and chipped in with a .412 average. Senior Greg Holt got 2 of the 4 wins in relief as he didn't give up a run in 4 2/3 innings and starting pitchers Chirs Munnelly, Patrick Johnson, and Kent Emanuel were equally impressive only giving up a combined total of 4 runs in 17 innings.
4-0 is not a bad way to start for a team that was only picked to be in the middle of the pack in a very strong ACC.
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