Tom Suiter: Tar Heels Get Second Chance

A year ago in Omaha, it was a disconsolate group of UNC baseball players that trudged off the field at Rosenblatt Stadium.

The hurt and disappointment were written all over their tired drawn faces. The National Championship was so close they could have just leaned over a little and given that plaque a big smooch. But as it was, Carolina was jilted at the baseball altar, and it was nobody's fault but their own.

Carolina knew they were better than Oregon State, but the Tar Heels let the three-game series get away from them. They won Game 1, blew a 5-0 lead in Game 2 and then threw it away the next night losing the deciding Game 3 by the 3-2 score. The Tar Heels had to sit and watch an Oregon State team celebrate a championship they knew should have been theirs.

It doesn't happen often -- only the second time in 61 years that there's a rematch from the year before, but as one of my heroes of long ago -- old Yogi -- used to say: "It's deja vu all over again." Saturday night. UNC gets another crack, and if last year's hurt lingers, Carolina's keeping it to themselves.

"We forgot last year a long time ago," All-American shortstop Josh Horton said. "We're just ready to get back on the field and play for the national championship. We're a totally different team this year."

It's a different team, sure, but one that does have a lot of players who remember that losing feeling and deep down, no matter what they say publicly, you know they want to make amends.

The roles are also reversed. Last year, Carolina came into the championship series without a loss while Oregon State had to work its way up through the losers' bracket. This season is just the opposite. Oregon State is the more rested team, but Carolina, which will be playing it's fourth game in five days, knows rest can come next week.

"Three days in a row is tough to play in this tournament," UNC Coach Mike Fox said. "You have to take a deep breath. We're playing for the national championship; you can't be tired."

Oregon State, which is making its third straight appearance in the College World Series, has become an unlikely but very proud national power. Most of its team comes from the great Northwest where the cold and wet weather is not conducive to playing the game year-round. It you look at the long list of national champions, only five have come from above the so-called sunbelt.

"If you look at what happened the last three years, you have to say we are one of the elite programs in the country," head coach Pat Casey said. "If you get the right players with the right attitude, anything is possible."

Adds second baseman Joey Wong: "Making it three years in a row -- it's not something that gets done a lot. It's something we earned and we're proud of."

But Carolina has to be the favorite going into this three-game series. The ACC Champions have been ranked among the top teams in the country all season long. The Tar Heels lineup is loaded with 300-hitters and the team that led the ACC in homers is back to playing long ball.

In beating Louisville and then, Rice, two straight, Carolina got solid starting pitching, and closer Andrew Carignan is as good as it gets in the college game. And Carignan likes the mental toughness of a team that has fought back this entire NCAA tournament.

"This is a tough bunch," the hard-throwing right-hander said. "We have all the confidence in the world in ourselves and in each other. We know how much of a challenge this is but we've come together for it."

Like last year, I think Carolina is better than Oregon State. OSU is certainly good (you have to be to get this far), and they believe in themselves, and they are the champions until UNC proves them different.

But they're not as good as last season. Despite losing first-round draft picks, star pitchers Andrew Miller and Daniel Bard, Carolina is.

The ACC hasn't won a national title in baseball since Wake Forest did it in 1955. I think that long drought will end.