Posted by Art Chansky | May 15, 2024 | Sports, Sports Notebook
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It feels like this is the year Carolina returns to Omaha.
We remember Mike Fox’s magical run as UNC’s baseball coach. Seven trips to the College World Series in 13 years after the Diamond Heels had only been there four other times in the 77-year history of the event.
When Fox took over for Mike Roberts as head coach, he seemed like a good hire after playing for Carolina in the 1978 CWS, the first of two times his predecessor got the Heels to Omaha in his 20 years at the helm. Walter Rabb took them there twice in his 30 years as head coach. That was it.
What did Fox do that was so different? He enlisted the help of other coaches, like his good friend Roy Williams, to help lure some of the top high school players in the country to Chapel Hill. He was also involved in a refurbishment of Boshamer Stadium that made the old ballpark sparkle for recruits and fans who came more than ever. It resulted in a school record of 840 wins for a 70-plus winning percentage in his 21 years before retiring.
Granted, Fox was fortunate to coach during the growth of college baseball, when players could still turn pro out of high school but once they enrolled in college were not eligible for the Major League Draft until after three years in school. Football and basketball have had different iterations, but none has been as successful as the baseball rules that helped build a dynasty here.
Fox retired two years after his seventh College World Series team in 2018. The Heels were never as close to winning as in 2006 and 2007, heartbreaking losses to Oregon State in the championship round. Carolina had most of its greatest players and future pros during that span, and Fox’s successor and former assistant Scott Forbes continues to put talented teams on the field led by such stars as Vance Honeycutt, UNC’s home run king.
But while other ACC schools have been to the College World Series during Carolina’s run under Fox, Forbes’ seventh-ranked team has won the ACC Coastal Division and goes after its second conference tournament title in three years next week in Charlotte. The Heels are an ACC-best 20-7 and 39-11 overall before ending the regular season at Duke this weekend.
Forbes’ club carries an ACC-third .304 team batting average and has swatted 65 home runs in league play, 16 more than the second-most by Florida State. Their earned-run-average is 4.75 and they have allowed only 137 runs, best in the league.
It’s a long, tough road once the NCAA pairings come out, but Carolina is in a positive position to host a regional and super regional at The Bosh, from where they will have a well-earned advantage to get back to Omaha.
Featured image via UNC Baseball on Twitter
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Hoping we host the super regional. Home has been all ours this year.
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