North Carolina baseball has made Omaha, Neb., its temporary residence come every June.
The Tar Heels have established themselves in the College World Series after four consecutive trips to the national tournament.
With that resume, it’s tough to imagine UNC being the last of six ACC teams in Baseball America’s Top 25 poll.
Coastal Division foes Virginia, Georgia Tech and Miami were all picked ahead of the Tar Heels in the national poll. In the ACC coaches poll, UVa. and Ga. Tech nabbed the top two spots.
UNC received one first-place vote in the coaches poll.
“I know our league is as good this year as it has ever been top to bottom,” UNC coach Mike Fox said. “We have to go to Miami and UVa. and that’s gonna present all types of challenges for us.”
Virginia won the ACC Championship last season and coach Brian O’Conner gave UNC its lone first-place vote.
But the Tar Heels won’t have to worry about the Cavaliers until mid-May in the next-to-last series before the ACC Tournament, which will be held in Greensboro.
The pressing issue is how to fill holes left by top-15 MLB draft picks Dustin Ackley and Alex White.
Ackley is UNC’s only three-time All-American and was recently named the decade’s best hitter in collegiate baseball by Rivals.com.
“You will never fill that hole,” Fox said of Ackley. “He might be the best hitter outside of B.J. Surhoff that’s ever played here. No one player is gonna walk in and fill his shoes.”
Sophomore Levi Michael may be the best candidate to control offensive production for Fox’s team like Ackley did in the last four years. Michael, who graduated early from high school to play last year for the Tar Heels, started in 65 of UNC’s 66 games at second base.
Michael generated 57 RBIs and had the second-most home runs (13) of any freshman in the program’s history.
Seth Baldwin may serve as a dark horse for the team’s slugging. Baldwin’s stats from his freshman campaign last year aren’t impressive at first glance, but they include a .500 batting average and four RBIs in the postseason.
White’s absence will greatly be felt in the pitching rotation. He fanned 121 batters in 16 appearances for the Tar Heels last season.
Fox said that he has yet to settle on a definitive rotation that will include Colin Bates, Matt Harvey and Patrick Johnson.
Harvey finished with a 7-2 record for UNC last season, starting in 13 games. Bates and Johnson combined for six wins while Bates gave up the fewest home runs (2) of any Tar Heel pitcher that logged over 50 innings of work.
“All we want out of those three guys is to stay healthy and when it’s your turn, give us five or six innings of strike throwing,” Fox said.
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
