Tar Heels head to Omaha for fifth College World Series in six years

The morning after North Carolina punched its ticket to the 2011 College World Series, Jacob Stallings received a congratulatory text message from friend and Vanderbilt third baseman Jason Esposito.

The Tar Heel catcher’s dad, Kevin Stallings, is the head basketball coach at Vanderbilt, and Jacob Stallings has grown up a fan of the Commodores.

But when No. 3-seeded UNC takes on No. 6-seeded Vanderbilt at 2 p.m. on Saturday in Omaha, Neb. for the first game of the College World Series, Stallings’ family ties to the black and gold will be overshadowed by his personal hunt for a national championship.

Stallings led the Tar Heels to a win against Stanford on Saturday with three hits and three RBI. The win made the Tar Heels one of only three teams with a perfect 5-0 record in the NCAA tournament.

But as the Tar Heels pack their bags for their fifth trip to Omaha in six years, coach Mike Fox is putting those successes behind him.

“Everybody (in the College World Series)is good and everybody has won,” Fox said. “I think momentum in baseball is from pitch to pitch, from inning to inning, from dugout to dugout. I think it goes back and forth. You just hope you have it at the end of the game.”

UNC hasn’t played Vanderbilt since Fox began coaching in 1999, and the veteran coach isn’t taking the next competition lightly.

“Vanderbilt is very, very good,” Fox said. “Scary good, actually.”

In last week’s MLB draft, Vanderbilt broke an Southeastern Conference record when 12 Commodores were selected. Pitchers Sonny Gray and Grayson Garvin were both picked in the first round.

North Carolina will likely face one of Vanderbilt’s two nationally prominent pitchers in Saturday’s game.

But with Patrick Johnson starting on the mound for UNC, the Tar Heels will showcase their own share of defensive dominance.

Johnson, who is 13-1 on the season, has allowed just one run in 31 innings.

Johnson made his postseason debut against Wake Forest in the ACC tournament, allowing no hits, no runs and striking out eight in six innings pitched.

He returned in the NCAA Chapel Hill regional and held the nation’s No. 1 scoring offense to no runs and just four hits.

Pitcher Greg Holt said Johnson’s consistency on the mound gives the Tar Heels a reason to breathe easy.

“When Patrick walks out there, we know he’s going to give us a chance to win,” Holt said. “He’s not going to go out there and get lit up… Being a senior, he’s been there, he’s done that, and he knows how to handle himself.”

Even though North Carolina has yet to win a national championship, playing in the College World Series is nothing new for the Tar Heels.

But from the beginning, Fox said he knew something was different about this particular squad.

Fox said after Sunday’s win against Stanford that he had a gut feeling his team would surprise people and earn a chance to play in Omaha.

Now that they can check that off the list, the Tar Heels will look to bring an NCAA title to Chapel Hill.

And while Saturday’s game might be a conflict of interest for Stallings, the catcher simply views the matchup with Vanderbilt as he would any other game — the next step in the journey to the ultimate prize, a national championship.

“Certainly I cheer for Vandy baseball, but whenever we’re going to play them, it’s not even a question,” Stallings said. “These guys are my brothers, and those guys are my friends.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com