Carolina hosting regional
After ending the season in a way that head coach Mike Fox might not have liked too much, losing a game for the first time ever to Boston College and then losing two out of the three games in the Atlantic Coast Conference post season tournament, it’s time for the Diamond Heels to get back to their winning ways. They can do that starting this Friday as they host one of the regional sites and are the number four national seed. The games of course will be at the brand new Boshamer Stadium (schedule of the game for the Chapel Hill Regional are below), and the other three teams participating in it are: #4 Dartmouth (27-16), #3 Kansas (37-22) and #2 Coastal Carolina (46-14). North Carolina, the number one seed for this part of the tournament, comes into this with a 42 and 16 record.
2009 NCAA CHAPEL HILL REGIONAL SCHEDULE
Friday, May 29
Game 1: #2 Coastal Carolina (46-14) vs. #3 Kansas (37-22), 2 p.m.
Game 2: #1 North Carolina (42-16) vs. #4 Dartmouth (27-16), 6 p.m.
Saturday, May 30
Game 3: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 1 p.m.
Game 4: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 5 p.m.
Sunday, May 31
Game 5: Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, 1 p.m.
Game 6: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5, 5 p.m.
Monday, June 1
Game 7: 6 p.m. - (if necessary) (If Game 5 winner also wins Game 6)
Coastal Carolina
This could set up an eventual rematch between North Carolina and Coastal Carolina. The two teams met in late February at the same stadium they might be again this weekend, with the Tar Heels being number one in the nation and the Chanticleers, 18th in the country at the time, gave UNC their first lose of the young season. The final in that game was 7-3. Over, overall the Heels are 36-14 over the Chanticleers, who is also the same team they defeated in last year’s Super Regional on their way to the College World Series.
It will definitely be interesting to see if this team, who has played above expectations in my opinion, can reach Omaha for the fourth straight season. I would say that as a fan I would be disappointed if they didn’t, but as one that follows the sport as close as I can, I could see the possibility of this happening. For all I have seen this team is lacking that one player that can spark it up when needed and when you have a team that has talent, but maybe not enough to make it to the CWS, you need one of those types of players for when the team is down and needs a boost.
I am looking forward to these games and seeing if North Carolina can rally itself around and make it to the College World Series. I have found that for the last three seasons having the Tar Heels in Omaha makes the summer so much shorter and the wait until college football starts a lot more bearable. One thing that can be said about Mike Fox’ team: if they make it to another College World Series they will have done so by defeating a lot of “other” Carolina teams. Since it’s most likely that UNC will have to beat first Coastal and then face either South Carolina or East Carolina in order to make it to Omaha. Then it can be said that whether the Heels win or not the CWS they were the best Carolina team in this tournament. But then again, we all knew that before, didn’t we?
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