April 17, 2008

By Adam Lucas

For Carolina baseball, having a player hit for the cycle was a rarity. When Tim Fedroff did it Tuesday night at UNC-Greensboro, it sent sports information director John Martin scrambling for the record books. Text messages were sent to former baseball sports information directors. Boxscores were dusted off. Experts were consulted.

"I've been here for 18 years," said associate head coach Chad Holbrook, "and I can't remember anyone ever doing it."

That's 18 years of very good Tar Heel hitters. It's Brian Roberts and Russ Adams and Josh Horton and Adam Greenberg and even Holbrook himself.

Fedroff's personal record book proved to be quite a bit more accessible.

"The last time I did it?" he said after the game. "It was my junior year, we were playing Franklin, and I think it was in April."

So there you have it. For Carolina baseball, hitting for the cycle--a single, double, triple, and home run in the same game--is historic. For Fedroff, it's just a reminder of one of those Hillsborough High vs. Franklin High games back home in Flagtown, New Jersey.

Perhaps doing something that a Tar Heel hadn't done in two decades will finally earn Fedroff some attention. He quietly had a very good freshman campaign, hitting .344 and earning freshman All-America honors from Collegiate Baseball. But his solid season was overwhelmed by the outstanding numbers being posted by classmate Dustin Ackley. He was overlooked for the prestigious Cape Cod League and instead spent the summer with the Wilmington Sharks of the Coastal Plain League.

This year, he's been even better. He's hitting a team-high .405 and is a fixture in the third spot in Mike Fox's batting order. He's become so essential to the offense that when he missed last Tuesday's game against Elon, the Tar Heels were shut out for the first time in nearly a year.

Combined with Ackley and Kyle Seager--who leads the ACC with 52 RBI--Fedroff gives the Tar Heels a lefthanded trio that is poisonous to righthanded pitching. Fox has scattered them throughout the lineup, alternating with righties Kyle Shelton and Chad Flack, to make pitching changes very difficult for opposing coaches. Bring in a lefty to face Ackley? OK, but he may also have to pitch to Shelton. Throw a lefty against Fedroff? Sure, but he'll also have to face the resurgent Flack. That brings up dicey choices for opposing coaches like Charlotte's Loren Hibbs, who burned through four relievers over the final 4.1 innings of Wednesday's 12-inning UNC victory.

The statistical results are impressive. The Fedroff/Seager/Ackley trio has already posted 117 RBI. All three players are in the league's top 15 in that category. Their combined total is more than half the figure of seven entire teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Fedroff is far from being the prototypical lefthanded college hitter who thrives on righthanded pitching. In fact, he's hitting several points higher against lefties than he is against righties. He's also batting .381 with runners in scoring position, the second-highest mark on the team.

"He comes to play every night," Fox said. "That's his biggest tool. He takes every at-bat extremely personally. He's the one hitter in our lineup who has stayed consistent all year long. There have been no low points in his year so far."

Fittingly, the understated Fedroff even achieved his Tar Heel milestone in low-key fashion. His first three at-bats against UNC-Greensboro included a triple, double, and home run. He walked in the sixth, and by the time he came back to the plate in the eighth, the game was decided and the cycle seemed forgotten.

Fedroff grounded to second and sprinted out of the box. Second baseman Tim Carrier was one step too casual, and Fedroff beat the play at first for the history-making single.

"Dustin had brought up (the cycle) to me earlier," Fedroff said. "I was mad because I thought he was going to jinx it. But it turned out to be a combination of getting some breaks and putting the ball in good spots on the field."

The way he picked up the single even pleased his head coach, who was as excited about Fedroff's hustle--with a big lead in the eighth inning of a midweek game--as he was about the milestone.

"He can get out of the box," Fox said. "That shows you what kind of player he is. He's just a good player, it's that simple."

Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.