Baseball: Offense has more power than 2008's

It was in fact the conventional wisdom at the time.

Duke needed a win against No. 4 North Carolina in the opening day of the ACC baseball tournament last Friday. So the Blue Devils threw out their best left-handed pitcher Christopher Manno.

The strategy made sense — the Tar Heels had struggled to hit left-handed pitching all year. Why would May 22 be any different?

Five innings later UNC was up 4-0 and Manno was walking off the mound after giving up seven hits.

What happened?

Duke didn't take into account that UNC was entering the tournament fresh off shelling another left-handed pitcher — Boston College's Pat Dean. Against Dean the damage was even more severe: six innings ten hits six runs and three walks.

It seems that UNC's batting is finding the groove at just the right time. Coach Mike Fox early in the season said his team needed to learn how to hit off-speed pitching from left-handed pitchers — those breaking moving junk throws that lefties toss out to baffle hitters.

It took the Tar Heels most of the season but it seems as though their bats are finally starting to come alive.

Take a look at North Carolina's hitting numbers this year. So far UNC has 380 RBIs on 414 hits. They are batting .301 as a team with 62 home runs on the year as well.

In 2008 the Tar Heels batted .324 for the year based mostly on the strength of Dustin Ackley and Tim Fedroff both of whom finished above .400. They hit 58 long balls and drove in 468 runs.

So what does all of that mean? UNC is a different team offensively from last year. In 2008 the Tar Heels stuck to small ball for the most part. Singles and doubles are down from last season where UNC knocked 175 two-baggers (only 108 this year). But UNC's lineup has the thing that it was most in need of last year: power.

 Mark Fleury (.310 12 home runs) Levi Michael (.293 13) and most importantly Ackley (.399 20) have all been able to send the ball out of the yard with regularity this year. Thus the Tar Heels already have more homers (62) than they had in ten more games last season (58).

Part of that is the fact that in 2008 UNC was playing in the expansive U.S.A. Baseball Training Complex in Cary N.C. where home runs are hard to come by.

But it is also true that Fleury and Michael give UNC more power than they had in 2008 when a struggling Chad Flack managed one home run all postseason. And in Omaha Neb. during UNC's five College World Series games the Tar Heels only managed two long balls.

Still if UNC can continue to put bats on left-handed pitching it'll go a long way toward making sure they have a chance to send a few more balls out of the park in a fourth straight trip to Omaha for the College World Series.


Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu