Heels win first one against Pirates

Alex White (TarHeelBlue.com)

Yesterday, even with a very hectic day due to real life issues, I was able to watch most of the opening game of the NCAA super regional series, where North Carolina (46-16) beat East Carolina (46-19) by the final of 10-1. It was a great performance by junior right hander Alex White, who went into the ninth inning before being pulled by head coach Mike Fox (White went 8.1/throwing 128 pitches/79 strikes), along with the bottom part of the Tar Heel line up, which went a combined 8 for 15 with five RBIs and five runs scored. But, while the game ended in a blow out for the Diamond Heels, they were not the ones to take score first in this game. However, they sure were the ones to score over and over and over again.

With the win Mike Fox’ club has improved to 17 and 1 in the post season when playing at home, which includes a 5-1 record in the Super Regional. I predict that if the team keeps hitting as they did yesterday, with all starters getting at least one hit, and five of them getting 2 or more, that winning record will continue to grow with time. In all the Carolina pitchers struck out 14 ECU players yesterday (with White having 12 of them). In 26 innings against East Carolina the UNC staff has struck out 38 Pirates. I love reading and reporting all of these stats, but the one I have to take a minute on now is the fact that with the 6th post season win Alex White has become the winningest post season pitcher in Carolina’s history. It is no wonder that the junior pitcher is slated to be a Top 5 player when the MLB Draft comes along next week.

I read on the official site of UNC’s Athletics that yesterday’s attendance of 4,316 was a Boshamer Stadium record. Having watched the game, but not all of it, I never saw head coach Roy Williams, who seems to have been to most of the road trips the Diamond Heels have made to Omaha in the last years. Maybe he is out recruiting and we will see him today. Stay tuned for that small tid bit in the next small blog about the team.

When coach Fox was asked about taking White out in the ninth inning he said the following:

“When I went out to take Alex [White] out, he said, ‘Thanks, I really needed this.’ And that kind of surprised me a little bit because I knew it was never an option for me not to pitch him if he was healthy. Our guys feed off of him. He’s tough, a competitor, he doesn’t back down and he wants the ball. Whether or not he feels good, he wants to be out there. That’s part of the quality of a good leader.”

While the junior pitcher said this about it:

“Obviously, I wanted to go back out on the mound no matter the pitch count. [The coaches] are looking out for me at all times and I think Coach Fox did a great thing by letting me go back out. It’s possibly my last start right here. Who knows? It was just great with the crowd. It was an emotional moment and I enjoyed it.”

All of this tells me one thing: the team and coach trust Alex White and he knows how to prove that he can be trusted. Going that long is a good thing for the pitcher that is going to be the number one option at the College World Series, as it will ease the duty of the bull pen. I truly think that in college baseball the bats can win the games just as much as the pitchers, but when you know that one game is almost certainly yours to begin with the whole team can play more relaxed and puts the pressure on the opponents.

The record crowd (TarHeelBlue.com)

A nice article detailing the win by the Tar Heels and how dominant White was was done by the Winston-Salem Journa, which is entitled “Tar Heels pound Pirates“. And I have to say, it was a great game, one that if it can be repeated today and next week at the CWS, could have UNC taking home the national championship.

At WRAL the title of the article is “White steals the show“, and I guess I can agree with that, even if the batters were also in the mix in the game. What I liked about the online article was this sentence:

For a pitcher that many think will hear his name called within the first few minutes of the 2009 MLB draft, Alex White had a lot of questions surrounding his Saturday start against East Carolina.

Would the 6-foot-3 junior return to form after consecutive outings that saw him allow 13 earned runs in just seven innings against Virginia and Coastal Carolina?

This to me shows that the young man left the past behind him and worked hard to prove that his All American status isn’t a fluke but a just reward for the type of player that he is. Some say that what makes a pro from the rest is the ability to let go of the last play/game/whatever and focus on the things at hand. And that is just what Alex White when he stepped on the mound yesterday against East Carolina. He faced a much more potent line up than what he had in the last games and it didn’t bother him at all as he focused on what needed to be done. And what he did was help his team go up 1-0 in the series, with game two coming up today at Boshamer Stadium (first pitch scheduled for noon).

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