North Carolina baseball head coach Mike Fox was named ACC Coach of the Year on Tuesday, highlighting season honors for a program that clinched its second straight Coastal Division Championship last week.
Although he is one of only four active coaches with more than 1,400 wins, Fox, in his 20th year at UNC, had never won the award before this season. After losing five of their first seven games to start the season, he coached the No. 5 Tar Heels (37-17, 22-8 ACC) to five wins over top-10 opponents, five ACC series sweeps and a 30-10 record down the stretch. It was a solid finish to the regular season for a team in question early in the year.
In addition to Fox, four UNC players were honored for their performances this season.
Junior third baseman Kyle Datres was named to First Team All-ACC after a consistent year at the plate. Datres, who has a .345 batting average this season, ranks third in the conference in the category after an 18 consecutive game hit streak, the longest on the team all year. He leads the team in batting average, hits and doubles and is in the top-10 for hits, runs scored and on base percentage in the ACC.
Sophomore first baseman Michael Busch and junior outfielder Brandon Riley were named Second team All-ACC. Busch has scored a team-high 55 times this season, hit 11 home runs, drove in 51 RBIs and finishes the regular season with a .502 slugging percentage. He has maintained a .988 fielding percentage on the season and also has an active 26 game reached base streak entering the postseason.
After starting the season in a slump, Riley emerged as one of the team’s best hitters in ACC play. Against conference foes, he hit .311 including .405 in his last 20 games. He also has the second most hits, doubles, triples and RBIs on the team.
Sophomore Ike Freeman was named Third Team All-ACC after taking over the shortstop position this year. He has the highest batting average (.324 ) on the team for ACC play and led the ACC in RBIs during conference play . After setting career highs in most of his offensive categories and solid play at the center of the infield, Freeman was recognized for his performances.
The Tar Heels will enter the ACC Championship later this week as the No. 1 overall seed, facing No. 12 seed Pittsburgh on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
