The North Carolina Tar Heels are making their third straight appearance in the College World Series making the Championship series the last two season where they lost to Oregon State in both years. The Tar Heels are led by 10th year head coach Mike Fox. The Tar Heels enter the College World Series with a 51-12 record after sweeping through the Cary (NC) Regional with victories over Mount St Mary’s (16-8) and knocked off UNC-Wilmington twice (5-1 and 7-3). The Tar Heels were then named the hosts of the Super Regional in Cary where they welcomed Coastal Carolina with two straight victories by scores of 9-4 and 14-4.
The Tar Heels are led by a sophomore duo of Tim Fedroff and Dustin Ackley with Tim Federowicz and Chad Flack providing a ton of experience in the lineup. Fedroff and Ackley have battled all year for the team lead in batting average with a .408 average and Fedroff has a .398 average. Tim Federowicz is the Carolina starting catcher for the last two seasons but his production has gone down a little this season as he is only hitting .313 while Flack has a .275 average and a six homers. Both Federowicz and Flack need to have a big tourney for the Tar Heels to walk home with their first NCAA title.
UNC’s top starting pitcher this season has been Alex White who leads the team with a 10-3 overall record with a 2.75 ERA. He is expected to be one of the top players selected in the 2009 MLB draft. The second spot in the rotation has been filled by Adam Warren who is 9-1 with a 4.07 ERA. Freshman Matt Harvey has filled the third spot in the rotation most of the year but struggled against Miami late in the season. He has a 7-2 record with a 2.52 ERA. Rob Wooten leads the team with four saves on the year but four other players have recorded at least one save on the year.
