Tarheels projected lineup

[007]

Just wondering if anyone has any inside information on UNC's line-up for the 05 season. It will be interesting to see 1)if any freshmen position players will start and 2) who else will get innings on the mound after Bard and Miller. If this team can score some runs, I think Omaha is within reach.

[sockittome16]

Woodard could get some innings. He came on strong and got more and more innings in key games. Lots of long relief appearences last year

[007]

UNC only has two returning .300 hitters, Jay Cox (of/c) .329 and Greg Mangum (2b) .308 and the leading returning HR hitter from 04 was Chase Younts with 4. Something tells me Coach Fox will be looking for some sticks in the freshman class, especially in the infield. It would not be out of the question to see three guys in the blue infield at the same time who were terrorizing HS pitchers just last year. Maybe Fronk at 3b, Flack at 1b, & Shelton and Horton splitting time at SS ?

The other noteworthy thing about the Tarheel 05 roster is that there are six players from Charlotte who you could very possibly see in the same game during the course of the season. Bard,Daniel,Fronk,Mangum,Shelton & Woodard. In case you are still skeptical about the quality of HS baseball in Charlotte, this ought to tell you something.

[Coach May]

Look for Justin Webb to go behind the dish this year with Freshman Benji Johnson backing him up. Also look for Matt Ellington to either play in left or Dh he is really swinging the bat I hear. They are absolutely loaded on the hill. There is no doubt about the pitching they will be very strong on the hill. If they generate offense they have a legitimate shot at Omaha. I too think that Flack and Fronk will play because they can hit. They will have to get those young sticks in the line up to generate offense. UNC has tons of young talent and another great class coming in next year. They are going to be really good people.

[Braves]

Horton nailed down the ss position after his first practice. Mangum 2nd and Fronk 3rd.

I agree with Coach May about Webb catching, but Benji Johnson has been swinging a big bat. OF...Jay Cox, Younts and perhaps Mike Daniel, but those guys need to hit to stay in the lineup. Ellington will definately get his bats.

Chad Flack will get an opportunity to compete for 1st.

notes: Kyle Shelton is the best fielder but must get stronger and I know he is working hard on doing that.

pitching- suffice to say, they are loaded

[007]

Thanks guys, that's great info !
I counted 33 on their current roster and wonder if Coach Fox will redshirt anyone.
The soph and frosh pitching staff reads like a Baseball America top prospect list and the position players aint too shabby either. Is it true that Scott Boras has rented an apartment in Chapel Hill, and has been seen driving around in a baby blue Hummer ?

[Papabear]

What happened to Tyler White? Didn't he redshirt last year?

[Braves]

Tyler decided to become a student only. No one will have to worry about him though...Tyler will be successful at whatever path he takes.

[The "O"]

WILL be in the lineup regardless! He can flat out fly and play defense the best with anyoine in the country! On top of all that his work ethic and attitude are th epitome of what it is supposed to be at ANY level! :)

[Papabear]

Was Bryan Steed the walk on from Georgia who worked his way into the starting lineup at 2nd last year and had a pretty good year, as I recall? Haven't heard his name mentioned. Will Mangum's move from ss to 2nd bump him as a starter? Carolina's looking at starting three freshmen in the infield with Fronk, Horton, and Flack. Any infielders with experience coming off the bench if the frosh struggle?

[Braves]

First--- Mangum is returning to his natural position. He sacrificed for the team by moving to ss last year (it hurt his draft potential). Now, he will become the best 2nd B in the ACC.

Fronk and Horton are sure starters...Chad may play, but he must beat out Ellington at 1st...however if Chad hits college pitching as well as projected, then they will find a place for him to hit.

Corrado had a great summer and fall, so he will continue to battle at ss and 2nd for playing time....but his opportunity came around last year and he was not ready for it. It will be tough for him to beat out Horton or Mangum this year. I hope he remains patient for his opportunities.

IMO, the one thing Coach Fox does not need this year is....patience. If a player is not hitting, he will not hesitate to give another player an opportunity..and that's the key for the Tar Heel's success this year...hitting, hitting and more hitting.

[007]

IMO, the one thing Coach Fox does not need this year is....patience. If a player is not hitting, he will not hesitate to give another player an opportunity..and that's the key for the Tar Heel's success this year...hitting, hitting and more hitting.

Agreed. Corrado hit a buck fifty seven last year. That ain't gonna get it.
SS is wide open and it should be a major factor in this team's success.
Personally, I hope they spread the PT around early and give everyone a shot before they hit the meat of the season, but that's tough to do with such a large roster. This team desperately need some power in the middle of the order.

[Papabear]

Teams need to find out who's getting the job done early in the season before they start conference play. I think that's what happened last year with the Heels shortstop. He was a freshman and it was taking a little longer for him to to adjust so they made a change and moved Mangum to short and put Steed in at second.

[Papabear]

Baseball America lists freshman Matt Spencer starting at 1b for the Tarheels, with Chad Flack as backup. Ellington is listed as the DH. Where did Spencer come from? I don't think his name has been mentioned in previous posts as even a possible starter. :huh:

[NCBBallFan]

Matt Spencer is no slouch ... he was drafted in the 24th round by the Boston Red Sox. I'd say that he's probably a very solid ball player.

[Braves]

Spencer is indeed a highly touted freshman...at 6'4" and 215..the kid has a ML body and a stroke to go with it. He was the highest ranked HS player out of Tennessee.

With the 50+ pitchers that UNC has and 49 of them are heralded there is one pitcher that will surprise you...Andrew Carignan. This Connecticut freshman fireballer is the real deal. He will remind you of Adam Warren

and the return of both Adam Kalkoff amd Matt Danforth to the pitching rotation after injuries ain't going to hurt.

[Papabear]

Wow, Spencer's 6'-4" and 215 now with the potential to put on another 15-20 pounds in the next year. He must have some power. Braves, do you really think Mangum would have been taken in the draft if he'd stayed at second last year, or do you think teams maybe wanted another year to look at him? He's a heck of a player.

[Braves]

Yep...I do. Mangum makes plays like no other and has a decent enough bat. The kid is a terrific athlete ( a great basketball player ) and has hands of a three card monte dealer. He's a perfect 2nd baseman

[007]

Coach Fox could run out a very strong line-up with left-hand hitters at every spot except for catcher. Spencer-1b,Magnum-2b,Horton-ss,Fronk-3b,Cox-lf,Younts-cf,Daniel-rf,Ellington-dh. Since he has good right-handed depth at all those positions, we could see lots of platooning.

The player that no one has mentioned is freshman Seth Williams from North Henderson. He is definitely in the RF mix and could see some action out of the bullpen as well.

[007]

2/16/05 vs ASU (lefthanded pitching)
*Magnum-2b
Webb-c
*Cox-rf
Flack-1b
Cook-dh
*Daniel-lf
Corrado-ss
*Fronk-3b
Younts-cf
Miller-p

*bats left

UNC wins 5-0 on Ross Cook's 3 run homer but are outhit by ASU 7-5.
Looks like a possible platoon situation at 1b,ss,dh.
1b-Flack/Spencer
ss-Corrado/Horton
dh-Ross/Ellington
Fronk gets base hit and scores in first collegiate at bat.

[JM15]

Talked to an App. player last night who told me UNC is a very good team, but will be in trouble all-season if they don't get but 5 hits off of ASU.

[007]

JM-Yea, definitely not a good sign. The guys out of App's bullpen (Reeder,Caudill & Fish) held UNC to one hit over the last 4 innings.
I gotta feelin that lefties will be tough on them.

[007]

The Tar Heels lit up Seton Hall starter Tim Sabo (and his ERA) like a Christmas tree, scoring 12 runs in two innings pitched. Four dingers for the home team in a 17-0 rout. Twenty two UNC players saw action in this one as Coach Fox played everyone except the groundskeeper. Daniel Bard picked up the win.

[007]

Adam Kalkof picked up Saturday's 5-0 win for the Tar Heels third straight shutout. Robert Woodard started and gave up only 2 unearned runs in 5 1/3 innings on Sunday, but did not get the decision in the 5-2 win. The UNC bullpen has had plenty of work with the early-season low pitch counts and they have been flawless.

Coach Fox has done a great job of spreading the PT around over the first four games. Only a few players have yet to see action. Wondering what happened to former Rose standout,Brack Massey. He is no longer on the roster.

[007]

The Tar Heels are 9-3 after dropping three tough games at the LeClair-ECU tournament. Robert Woodard pitched 7 innings of shutout ball against Michigan on Sunday, giving up only 2 hits and zero walks, but the Tar Heels lost in the ninth.
Josh Horton appears to have beaten out Corrado for the starting SS position and Chad Flack who has hit 2 HRs, is getting most of the PT at first base.
Thus far, the offense is still a big question mark.

[007]

UNC beat the College of Charleston to improve to 10-3. They will begin confrence play this weekend against Va. Tech. Thus far, Justin Webb and Jay Cox have been the offensive leaders for the Tar Heels. Freshman RF Seth Williams (North Henderson) went 4 3 3 3 with an HR vs CoC to raise his season average to .350.
Kyle Shelton (South Meck) is the only other freshman who is batting over .300 with a .333 average. Shelton is being used more and more frequently as a defensive replacement at 3b and ss.
Coach Fox unveiled a new wrinkle in UNC's lineup against CoC by putting Webb at 3B and Freshman Benji Johnson behind the plate.

[atlheel]

Coach Fox unveiled a new wrinkle in UNC's lineup against CoC by putting Webb at 3B and Freshman Benji Johnson behind the plate.
Not the first time, Johnson's caught a few games, and Webb played 3B for at least one of those. I only caught an inning yesterday, but it was nice to see the offense bounce back.

[007]

ATL-When you said you caught only one inning, I thought you were like really catching, with the tools of ignorance and all that. LOL. Since you go to all the home games, tell me something that I can't read on the UNC website write-up or boxscore...like the defense. Figured Spencer might be getting more PT at 1b. Is he hurt or is Flack just hitting better ?

[atlheel]

Well. Last full game I caught from the stands Jay Cox and Chase Younts were one-upping each other with three fantastic diving catches in right and center, respectively. Overall the defense has been very solid, I thought, although catcher is very inexperienced. Big difference not having Iannetta back there. I feel like I'm seeing more passed balls and wild pitches, though I don't have stats to back that up.

As for Spencer, I haven't heard anything since February, when a team trainer told me he would be very good and didn't mention an injury. But he's only had seven ABs, so it looks like Flack just beat him out. He's only hitting .244, but is third on the team in RBIs, so I wouldn't expect to see Spencer doing much but pinch hitting. But I'm not an expert.

[007]

How would you compare Horton and Shelton defensively ? I thought Shelton was the best defensive HS player that I've ever seen. Really fun to watch. The guy is electrical. Never saw Horton play.
Also wondering about Gale,don't think he has pitched yet. Did anyone get redshirted ?

[Braves]

I love Josh Horton. He is very smooth at SS, has a great bat and is a true natural leader. Kyle Shelton is special. He can make all the plays and make them look easy. What separates Kyle from most is he has a cannon for an arm. Kyle can play 2nd, ss or 3rd equally as well. Give me Kyle's glove and footwork, Josh's bat and leadership and I'll have the premiere SS in the country.

[atlheel]

I think they're both very good, but Shelton's probably better defensively from the limited number of times I've seen him play. The fact that he's a late inning defensive replacement pretty often says a lot.

[atlheel]

After dropping 2 of 3 at Clemson, the Tar Heels returned from spring break to take two from Towson this week, moving to 15-0 at the Bosh.

Tuesday 3/22
Tigers 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 4 7 3
Heels 0 0 3 1 3 0 0 0 X 6 12 3

WP: Bryan Phillips (4 IP, 1 ER, 5 K, 2 BB)
LP: Tyler Travis (5 IP, 4 ER, 1 K, 2 BB)

Mangum was 2-for-5 and scored, Bryan Steed was 2-for-3 with a double and two sac bunts and Jay Cox had three doubles. Matt Spencer had a couple solid innings. Jonathan Hovis had a shaky one, giving up a single, homer and double, but came on strong in the eighth and Matt Danford saved the game with two Ks in the ninth.

Wednesday 3/23
Tigers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Heels 0 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 X 6 13 0

WP: Andy Gale (7 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 5 K)
LP: Jason Summerlin (5 IP, 6 ER, 11 H)

Mike Daniel went 3-for-4 with two homers and a triple, Chad Flack was 2-for-3 and Seth Williams also homered for the Heels, but Andy Gale, Andrew Carnigan and Robert Woodard stole the show, combining on a 1-hitter.

But I don't think anyone expected pitching to be a problem on this team. It's nice to see some double-digit hit nights after the Clemson series.

[007]

While the Tar Heel hoopsters advanced through the March Madness guantlet to the championship game, their baseball counterparts toiled in relative obscurity to improve to 22-0 at home and 24-5 overall, while sweeping two conference rivals in successive weekends at the Bosh.

I was in attendance for the first game vs. Wake Forest and was shocked by the paucity of fans (505) considering Andrew Miller was on the hill with his .069 ERA backed by a nationally ranked team. Miller did not have his best stuff that night but oh what a talent. He walked 6 and worked thru some jams to get the win, allowing only 4 hits aind 1 unearned run. SS Josh Horton hit his first collegiate home run.

Robert Woodard tossed eight shut out inning of relief against UVA while allowing only 4 hits. So far, RW is the team leader in BA against with .188, on a staff that is considered to have two of the best three soph pitchers in college baseball, Miller and Bard. Remarkable.

Offensively, North Henderson's Seth Williams is now leading the team with 7 dingers despite having only 66 ABs, and in slugging % (.667). Chad Flack now ranks third on the team with 5 HRs. In addition to Williams & Flack fellow freshmen, Fronk, Horton and Shelton are all batting over .300.

[atlheel]

It was a marathon this weekend vs UVA, and the Heels pulled out some gutsy victories. Friday night was pretty sloppy, and Carolina was down 2-0, 5-3 and 7-5 before finally tying it in the bottom of the ninth on a sac fly by Jay Cox. The Cavaliers threatened several times in extras, loading the bases in the 13th and leaving two on in the 14th, but singles by Matt Ellington and Jay Cox sandwiched around a Ross Cook walk won the game in the bottom of 14.

Saturday's game stretched from 1pm to after 6pm with all the rain delays. Daniel Bard returned after both delays, which totalled two and a half hours, finishing with 5 ERs in 7 innings on 7 hits and 5 Ks, which was actually a better line than it sounds like. The bullpen, in the form of Matt Danford, shut UVA down and Justin Webb broke the game open with a 3-run homer in the seventh.

I didn't get to today's game, but Kalkhof went 6.2 and gave up 1 run. Matt Danford allowed a solo homer in the tenth, but singles by Matt Ellington, Chad Flack and Jay Cox tied it up and the Heels won in the bottom of eleven. Kyle Shelton led off with a single, advanced to second on two groundouts and scored on the two-out single by Ellington.

So quite a weekend. The bullpen was fantastic and the Tar Heels impressed me with their propensity for scoring the half-inning after being scored upon. 7 out of 9 innings in which Virginia scored, Carolina answered in the bottom half.

[atlheel]

From The Daily Tar Heel, which covers baseball decently well even today.

Newcomers step up to the plate for baseball team
By Daniel Malloy

With more freshmen than Avalon on a Thursday night, the North Carolina baseball team's starting lineup has been a work in progress this season.

But after a sweep of Virginia this weekend, the Tar Heels are a school-record 22-0 at home, thanks largely to four freshmen that have solidified the batting order - Chad Flack, Reid Fronk, Josh Horton and Seth Williams.

The Tar Heels don't have the luxury of keeping the kids on the bench, as the team lost a significant chunk of its run production to graduation and the MLB draft.

"The freshman class, we really didn't have much of a choice; we kind of got thrown out there," Horton said. "Everybody is just kind of making adjustments on the run and just trying to do the best we can."

They are not playing like rookies, though. Williams leads the team in home runs, and Flack and Horton are both hitting at a .338 clip. Although they aren't making UNC fans forget about former sluggers Marshall Hubbard and Chris Iannetta - both of whom are now playing their trade professionally - the freshmen are making the grade.

"We were gonna miss those guys," Williams said. "We miss their power definitely...(But) we had one fo the top recruiting classes in the country, and we're playing like it."

Against Virginia the fresh faces were all over the scoreboard as Flack jacked two homeres and Williams went 3-for-4 on Saturday - but his most impressive play did not come at the plate.

With the Tar Heels clinging to a 6-5 lead in the seventh inning of Saturday's game, Virginia's Sean Doolittle lofted a ball into short center field as Ryan Zimmerman tagged up from third. Williams made the catch and then rifled a throw to nail Zimmerman at the plate, ending the inning and maintaining the slim margin for UNC.

And then Sunday it was another freshman, the seldom-used Kyle Shelton, crossing the plate in the 11th for the Tar Heels as the winning run after leading off the inning with a pinch-hit single.

"Our freshmen are learning a little bit," said Coach Mike Fox. "With every at bat you should get better. You should start figuring stuff out."

And it is clear that the newcomers are still learning. Horton has a team-high 11 errors, including two mishandled plays at shortstop Friday, and Williams was 0-for-3 at the plate Sunday.

"We wanted them to improve and to not be up and down," Fox said. "We felt like they've done that. They got consistent, and that's what you have to learn as a young player."

On the field the freshmen are earning the respect of opposing teams, but Horton's pre-plate appearance song choice as raises a few eyebrows.

While most players choose a rap song to blare from the Boshamer Stadium public address system, when Horton steps to the plate the opening lines of La Bouche's 1996 poppy techno hit "Be My Lover" serenade the crowd.

"It's just for fun, really," Horton said. "Just to loosen everybody up. ...Everybody picks a song that makes them look so hard. If I can make everybody laugh, that would be the best thing."

You'll have to forgive Horton for the questionable music taste.

He's just a freshman.

[atlheel]

Carolina bounces back impressively from the Elon loss with a 10-0 victory over Maryland at Shipley Field. Two-hit games from Reid Fronk, Jay Cox, Chad Flack and Chase Younts. Matt Ellington was 3-for-5 with 2 RBI and freshman Josh Horton was 3-for-5 with a career-high 4 RBI.

But I think Andrew Miller stole the show from even Horton, striking out 10 Terps over seven 2-hit innings and running his record to 7-0. His ERA on the season drops to 1.10 and opponents are hitting .195 against him.

Miller was selected as a second-team midseason All-American and Horton was named to the midseason freshman All-American team by Baseball America.