North Carolina has known mostly frustration at the College World Series but will start another attempt today to win the national championship.
UNC will play Vanderbilt in the series' opener at 2 p.m. at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb. (ESPN Chs. 33, 500). The Tar Heels will be making their fifth CWS appearance in six years and ninth overall and are still looking for their first title.
UNC wasn't considered a national-championship contender when the season started, but Greg Holt, a pitcher and designated hitter, said that the players have used doubts to fuel their run.
"People still don't think we're good enough," said Holt, who played at West Forsyth High School. "People still say, 'You can't beat Vanderbilt. You're not going to beat them.'
"I promise you, we're going to go out there and play our tails off. We're going to give it the best effort that we've probably had all year."
UNC (50-14 and seeded No. 3) and Vanderbilt (52-10, No. 6) will play each other for the first time. The winner will play the Florida-Texas winner at 7 p.m. Monday; the loser will play the Florida-Texas loser at 2 p.m. Monday.
The UNC-Vandy game will be the first College World Series Game at TD Ameritrade Park, which supplanted old Rosenblatt Stadium as the series' home. The new park in downtown Omaha cost $126 million and seats 24,000.
UNC's run of five series appearances since 2006 has come under coach Mike Fox, who is in his 12th season at his alma mater. Fox wants to win the national title, of course, but isn't obsessed with it.
"I would say this even if we had won one or two or three or four: I'm not going to let the national championship be the ultimate definition of our program," Fox said.
"Do we want to win one? Absolutely so. That's the ultimate goal, the ultimate prize, but it's not going to change anything."
Patrick Johnson, the ace of the pitching staff, is the Tar Heels' projected starter today. A senior right-hander, he is 13-1 and has won his last seven decisions.
He had a streak of 30 2/3 scoreless innings end last weekend against Stanford in the Chapel Hill Super Regional. He has allowed only three runs in his last 45 innings and has an ERA of 0.60 for that stretch and 2.27 for the season.
"He's been absolutely incredible and has exceeded my expectations times about a million," catcher Jacob Stallings said. "He's been absolutely awesome for us. He's been a shut-down guy."
Vanderbilt has outscored its five playoff opponents so far by a combined 46-7 and has eight players in its top rotation batting at least .300. First baseman Aaron Westlake is second on the team with a .353 average, and in the 9-3 win over Oregon State that decided the Nashville Super Regional, he had three home runs and six RBIs.
Sonny Gray, a right-handed pitcher, is 12-3 with a 1.97 ERA. Grayson Gavin, a lefty, is 13-1 with a 2.36 ERA. Both were first-round picks in Major League Baseball's amateur draft earlier this month, and Vandy had a total of 12 draft picks — the most ever for one SEC program. Also on the team is Mike Yastrzemski, a grandson of Boston Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski.
UNC, like Vandy, won all of its first five tournament games, but Fox isn't sure either team can carry momentum to the CWS.
"It starts with the first pitch out there," Fox said. "Everybody is good, and everybody has won. I think momentum in baseball is pitch to pitch, inning to inning and dugout to dugout.
"It goes back and forth. You just hope you have it at the end of the game."
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