North Carolina baseball closes book on tough season

The mood was reasonably lighter during the North Carolina baseball team’s 6-3 win against Clemson in its final ACC Tournament game Saturday.

After days of tough losses and not knowing where they stood among other hopeful teams looking to get in the NCAA tournament, Tar Heel players spoke with confidence that they had done enough to secure a bid.

“We got a good solid win,” junior Skye Bolt said. “And it’s really important going into this regional here, and I’m pretty positive we’re going to make it.”

But Coach Mike Fox remained cautious. In his 17 seasons as UNC’s head coach, Fox had seen how the selection committee decided the tournament field — although more often than not, his teams firmly held a spot in the tournament.

“This is kind of a little bit new territory for us, somewhat,” said Fox. “We’ve had some good wins. We’ve had some tough weekends. But we’ll just see, hope for the best.”

As the selection show for the tournament began Monday, Fox and his players waited anxiously to hear their name called.

But as the final regional was unveiled and North Carolina was absent from the list of names, that anxiousness turned into bitter disappointment.

UNC had been left out of the NCAA tournament — the first such instance since 2001.

“I never thought that we were immune to this. I mean it’s not a given,” Fox said. “We just didn’t do enough. I don’t think we gave the committee enough reasons to get us in.”

The Tar Heels finished the year with a 34-24 record, but ultimately it was the season’s final month that may have sealed their fate.

Coming into its game against Clemson, UNC had dropped eight of its last 10 games, including being swept by Notre Dame and Virginia in consecutive weekends.

The story in those games was North Carolina’s deficiency at driving in runners from second and third. In the team’s final regular season series against Virginia, the Tar Heels went a combined 1-for-20 with runners in scoring position.

But UNC’s season was also hindered by things that were simply out of it’s control, including injuries to several of the team’s key players, including Wood Myers, Reilly Hovis and Chris McCue.

“Those players ... they certainly would have helped us,” Fox said. “But I think it’s just baseball. I think you have to take the good with the bad.”

And despite all the troubling issues that ultimately led to UNC being left out of further postseason play, Fox noted that there was plenty of good that came from his players in 2015.

Pitcher Zac Gallen improved on his freshman campaign with a sub-one ERA at home, while Tyler Ramirez contributed heavily from the plate.

With these things in mind, Fox began to look ahead to 2016 as soon as he heard the committee’s decision. For him, 2015 had come and gone.

“We just turned the page. My assistants are in Colorado already recruiting,” Fox said.

“The door is closed so to speak on this season. All we can do is move forward — go back to work.”

sports@dailytarheel.com