Feb. 22, 2008

By Adam Lucas

Somewhere, the Seton Hall baseball players have very perplexed looks on their faces.

The Pirates have been the season-opening series in Chapel Hill every season since 2002. But if the SHU team bus pulls up at Boshamer Stadium today, they'll find a lot of construction workers and no Tar Heels.

The Diamond Heels are in sunny Boca Raton, avoiding the sudden Southeastern cold snap by beginning a three-game set at Florida Atlantic tonight at 6:30 p.m. It's the first season-opening true road series since a two-game set at Coastal Carolina opened the 1997 campaign. Carolina hasn't played a three-game season-opening true road series since the 1982 season opened with a trip to then non-conference foe Miami.

As the season unfolds beginning this evening, Mike Fox's team will try to answer the following five questions:

What effect will the shortened preseason have?

One of the many debatable changes implemented by the NCAA is a new uniform start date--for all teams, no matter the local climate--of Feb. 1. The first date of competition is Feb. 22 (today). It will be the latest first pitch for the Tar Heels since 1980.

The intent of the rule was to eliminate the advantage held by warm-weather teams that could begin playing games earlier than their cold-weather foes. But it's also resulted in a rushed preseason. In 2007, for example, Carolina began practice on Jan. 15 and didn't play a game until Feb. 16.

That would make 2008 a bad year to try and sort through any position battles among the starting position players...which makes it good news that the Tar Heels don't have any of those battles. Garrett Gore has made a seamless move from second base to shortstop to fill the spot vacated by Josh Horton, and Dustin Ackley will move to left field to replace Reid Fronk. That leaves Ackley's first base spot open, and it's likely to be manned by senior Kyle Shelton.

That's a significant change from last year, when freshmen position players started a combined 201 games. But the lack of competition for starting roles didn't lessen the preseason intensity.

"All it takes is one player on your bench to motivate the guy in front of him," Fox says. "Competition has really helped us the last couple years. But now the Fedroffs and the Williamses have so much pride in the way they play that they compete against themselves. That's a great luxury for me to have. We have such mature players."

Who's going to hit leadoff?

Fronk's defense in left field was stellar last year, but he might have been even more valuable as Carolina's leadoff man--a role he filled in 54 of the 73 games. His .433 OBP narrowly trailed only Ackley and Horton, and his 41 walks drawn ranked second to Horton's 47. Fronk was the rare leadoff man also capable of providing a power surge, as he led the team in home runs with 11.

The only returning player with significant college leadoff experience is Tim Fedroff, who spent 13 games in that slot in 2007. That could mean that the leadoff hitter could also be the designated hitter, a spot that may be filled by some combination of the trio of Kendric Burney, Zeke Blanton, and Ben Bunting.

Who replaces Andrew Carignan?

"No discredit to the other players we lost," Mike Fox says, "but the one guy we always knew we had in reserve was Andrew Carignan."

The Tar Heel closer matched a school record with 18 saves, including five in the NCAA Tournament and three in the College World Series. By late in the season, his workload was expanding; 9 of his last 13 appearances were more than an inning.

Rob Wooten, fresh off setting the school record for appearances, will be the opening day closer. But his move from the 8th inning to the 9th inning opens a big hole in the bullpen. For the last two seasons, Fox has had a reliable late-inning bridge to the closer--Jonathan Hovis in 2006 and Wooten in 2007. That pitcher will need to emerge from an untested group in 2008. A player to watch is Colin Bates, who has rebounded from arm surgery that cost him all of 2007.

How much is too much for Tim Federowicz?

Of course, that role could also belong to Federowicz, who made 19 mound appearances last season. But the departure of Benji Johnson means Federowicz's catching load is also likely to increase as a junior. He faded at the end of 2007, hitting .080 in the CWS.

"I've worked hard to keep my legs in shape and make sure I can go all season," the Apex native says. "I wouldn't say I was physically tired at the end of last year. It was more mental."

The Diamond Heels play 43 games in 65 days before the exam break, so some relief is needed. Federowicz is the only returning player to start a game at catcher in 2007. Mark Fleury, who has improved significantly on his game management and receiving, is the backup.

How good is the young pitching?

Some days, it will be very good. Other days, it may be spotty. That's the nature of young pitching in college baseball. Even freshman phenoms like Daniel Bard and Andrew Miller had their rough outings as rookies.

It's a measure of the youth of the staff that the two weekend "veterans," Alex White and Adam Warren, are a sophomore and a junior who has never pitched regularly on the weekend. The third spot will be filled this weekend by lefty Rob Catapano, who was mostly a left-on-left situational reliever as a freshman and will be making his first career start.

Because of the compressed early schedule, there will be plenty of opportunities for young pitchers to earn a bigger role. The Tar Heels will need 12 starters in the first 17 days of the season, which means freshmen like Matt Harvey and Garrett Davis will have a chance to make important appearances early.

Adam Lucas most recently collaborated on a behind-the-scenes look at Carolina Basketball with Wes Miller. The Road To Blue Heaven is available now. Lucas's other books on Carolina basketball include The Best Game Ever, which chronicles the 1957 national championship season, Going Home Again, which focuses on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.