
{"id":6271,"date":"2009-06-25T06:20:46","date_gmt":"2009-06-25T14:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=6271"},"modified":"2009-06-25T06:20:46","modified_gmt":"2009-06-25T14:20:46","slug":"end-of-an-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/06\/25\/end-of-an-era\/","title":{"rendered":"End of an era"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/baseballackleybwtiny.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/baseballackleybwtiny.jpg\" alt=\"Dustin Ackley at bat. Photo By Jeffrey Camarati.\" width=\"99\" height=\"150\" align=\"left\" \/><\/a><strong>Beth Mechum<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a week since the UNC baseball team lost its elimination game in Omaha, and from all accounts the team is handling it well.<\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nIt can be said that this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s team was Dustin Ackley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.<br \/>\nHe was the number-two pick in the Major League Baseball draft and holds the record for most hits in the College World Series.<\/p>\n<p>Not to mention his out-of-this-world batting average and his ACC Player of the Year honor.<\/p>\n<p>Or maybe it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Garrett Gore\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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.<\/p>\n<p>It could even be Mike McKee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, another senior. He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t play much, but was the spiritual leader of a team that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been reported to have more chemistry than the now-torn-down Venable Hall.<\/p>\n<p>But I consider it my team. <\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Each year I was disappointed, as they failed to win it all.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>We got there about two hours early because I was concerned there wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be enough seats.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>That chill stayed with me for days, but the euphoria a win brought lasted even longer.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t down for long.<\/p>\n<p>The regionals and super regionals were barely a contest, with the bats carrying the Tar Heels to the World Series.<\/p>\n<p>I could see it: national basketball champions and national baseball champions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this was going to be an amazing senior year.<\/p>\n<p>But a 1-2 record by the valiant Heels last week in Omaha squelched that dream.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a four-year run that will be hard to replicate.<br \/>\nAckley, Gore and McKee will be gone, and the road to Omaha just gets harder.<\/p>\n<p>They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve left their spike marks on the field, and I hope I left my own mark in the Bosh Pit student section.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the end of an era.<\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m working on getting over it. This trip down memory lane is helping the process.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a great season and a great four years, nothing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll soon forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Beth Mechum It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6273,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6271\/revisions\/6273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}