In the CWS the Heels are 1-1 and still playing
Dustin Ackley (AP Photo)
After two games in Ohama the Tar Heels are still alive. Losing the first game to Arizona State by a final of 5-2 in 10 innings, where junior right hander Alex White pitched a gem of a game (9.0 IP, 7 hits, 1 ER, 12 K’s) , but his team mates could not bring in any run support. Yesterday head coach Mike Fox’ team responded in a very convincing way, with junior first baseman Dustin Ackley leading the way (5 for 6), Carolina put up 23 hits (tieing the CWS record for most hits in a game) against a Southern Miss team that just could not tame the power of the Heels. When it was all said and done it was North Carolina beating Southern Mississippi by the final of 11-4. And while we all wish that UNC was 2-0 right now, you have to feel good about the fact that the two top Heels (and first rounders in this year’s MLB Draft) were key in both games.
The first game was deja vu of sorts for the Heels, as once again the final outcome was determined, at least partially, by errors that this squad doesn’t commit during the regular season, and should never commit during the CWS. A fly ball to right that senior outfielder Garrett Gore has caught 1,000′s of during games (and practices) drops and the Sun Devils have first and second with one out, instead of just first and two outs. A home run a batter later blew the game wide open and UNC could not catch up in the first frame of extra innings. I have to say that I felt really bad watching White pitch has good of a game as he could have and the bats not being able to support him with some runs, as the Heels left 11 men stranded. Let’s face it, how many of you that follow the Diamond Heels would have said that with a 9 inning performance, giving up just a run the righty would have come out of the game with a no decision? And even worst the Heels would have lost? Not many I would venture to guess.
The second game began a lot like the first game, with coach Fox’ squad leaving five men stranded on the base path in the first two innings while only scoring a a pair of runs. But then the flood gates opened, led by Ackley, who has also set the record for most hits at the CWS (27 in 14 games), Carolina came through in the next two frames, scoring four in the third and two in the fourth, making the score 8-0. In the game every single player had at least one hit, while seven of them had multiple, with Ackley having 5, junior short stop Ryan Graepel (who dropped from the clean up spot to seventh in the line up) having 4, sophomore outfield Ben Bunting 3 and four others having two a piece. It was a nice game to watch if you love small ball, since the hits weren’t for power for the most part, being singles/doubles that just crushed the opposition a bit at a time.
Of course, to be noted (and maybe underlined), since there are a couple of things that worry me about this team. First, the Heels did have another error in this game, which gives them a total of 4 in 19 innings. The other thing that people might have noticed, mainly because this was a very good win, is the fact that once again the Heels left 14 men on the bases, which makes it 25 in two games. Both of these trends have to be stopped if Carolina wants to win the title this year, especially when you consider the fact that they are not as strong as they were the past years, and are not the strongest of the teams in Omaha. You can not give up runs by committing errors like dropping fly balls and you can not leave runs off the board by stranding so many. As the games continue those two categories are going to be more and more important and they can not be (no pun intended) the achille’s heel of this team.
Today the team has the day off and will play tomorrow against Arizona State once again (who lost to Texas yesterd 10 to 6 after being up 6-0), with the first pitch scheduled for 6:00 p.m. EST. If the Heels can play like they did in the second game of this CWS I do not see a problem for them going onto the next game, which would be Texas the following night, once again a six o’clock start.
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