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End of an era

Posted on June 25, 2009 by Staff

Dustin Ackley at bat. Photo By Jeffrey Camarati.Beth Mechum

It’s been a week since the UNC baseball team lost its elimination game in Omaha, and from all accounts the team is handling it well.

I’m not.

It can be said that this year’s team was Dustin Ackley’s.
He was the number-two pick in the Major League Baseball draft and holds the record for most hits in the College World Series.

Not to mention his out-of-this-world batting average and his ACC Player of the Year honor.

Or maybe it’s Garrett Gore’s team. He has the distinction of most games played by any student-athlete in the College World Series and was one of the most experienced players on the team.

It could even be Mike McKee’s, another senior. He doesn’t play much, but was the spiritual leader of a team that’s been reported to have more chemistry than the now-torn-down Venable Hall.

But I consider it my team.

My four years at UNC included four years of rooting on the Tar Heels while they each year reached Omaha, the mecca of college baseball.

Each year I was disappointed, as they failed to win it all.

I had a good feeling about this season. It all started Feb. 20, when my friend Bryan and I headed out to Boshamer for the first game of the season.

We got there about two hours early because I was concerned there wouldn’t be enough seats.

Turns out, there were only a handful of us out there, and though we were excited, our cheers came through chattering teeth. The Tar Heels won the game, 13-3; but with a comfortable lead, my cold bones had to leave and find comfort of their own.

That chill stayed with me for days, but the euphoria a win brought lasted even longer.

Then there was the game against Miami in April that was as hot as February was cold. Bryan was there for that one too. The details are dim because the sun fried our brains. Months later, I still have the tan lines from hours of baking in the sun.

Another memorable one was the extra-inning game in the ACC Tournament. Bryan and I gave evil looks to the orange-and-purple-clad Clemson fan in front of us. He might have been only 5 years old, but he now knows not to mess with the Tar Heels. That kid got the last laugh in the end. But with the Heels having earned a number-four national seed heading to Omaha, I wasn’t down for long.

The regionals and super regionals were barely a contest, with the bats carrying the Tar Heels to the World Series.

I could see it: national basketball champions and national baseball champions – this was going to be an amazing senior year.

But a 1-2 record by the valiant Heels last week in Omaha squelched that dream.

It’s been a four-year run that will be hard to replicate.
Ackley, Gore and McKee will be gone, and the road to Omaha just gets harder.

They’ve left their spike marks on the field, and I hope I left my own mark in the Bosh Pit student section.

It’s the end of an era.

I’m working on getting over it. This trip down memory lane is helping the process.

It’s been a great season and a great four years, nothing I’ll soon forget.

1 thought on “End of an era”

  1. Leann says:
    June 28, 2009 at 1:47 pm

    Reading this helped me, too. Even now, more than a week later, I can still be walking around or driving some where and it’ll hit me that they didn’t win. It just eats at me because these guys were so deserving and so hard working and so together on their goals. I’m going to miss a lot of them, but I really do cherish all the memories and just how much FUN it was to watch them play.

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