June 11, 2006

By Adam Lucas

TUSCALOOSA--Did you see it?

Because if you did, you don't need to read this. Step away from your computer, lean back in your chair, and try to remember the exact feeling you had when Chad Flack's ninth-inning walk-off home run cleared the right field fence at Alabama's Thomas-Sewell Stadium.

There were approximately 200 Carolina fans and about 40 members of the traveling party inside the stadium when the ball sailed over the wall. None of them will ever forget it.

Chad Flack won't forget it, not after he hit his second unbelievable home run in two innings. In the eighth, he had powered a three-run shot over the left field fence to provide a temporary 5-4 Tar Heel lead. Now, in the ninth, he had hit what he later said was the first walk-off home run of his career.

An actual conversation from the Tar Heel dugout in the ninth: the Tar Heels have one runner on and Josh Horton strikes out for the second out of the inning. 5,420 rowdy Alabama fans were on their feet begging for the last out. And Flack turns to pitching coach Scott Forbes and says one thing:

"We're not going to lose this game."

He really did say it. Two different people verified it.

Who does that? Who watches his team fall to the verge of losing a heartbreaker, makes a bold pronouncement, and then goes out there and backs it up?

Chad Flack does.

Mike Fox won't forget it. He was standing in the third base coaching box when the ball cleared the fence. He has heard there was a celebration on the field, but he didn't see it--he was tackled in a celebratory bear hug by assistant coaches Chad Holbrook and Scott Forbes.

Matt Danford won't forget it. He had pitched four innings of exceptional relief to bail out the Tar Heels, and would eventually be joined by Jonathan Hovis and Luke Putkonen on the list of unsung bullpen heroes. With his pitching work done, he did the only thing he could do--he grabbed a wiffle ball bat he believed had magical powers.

"I think (Robert) Woodard is the one who brought the bat into the dugout," Danford said. "I think he had gone to the toy store earlier today to get some literature and he found this bat. I figured I had to do whatever I could to rally us so I grabbed it and it seemed to work."

He was still clutching the bat as he walked off the field after the game.

You won't forget it. Whether you watched it in Tuscaloosa or Chapel Hill or anywhere else, you just can't forget it. If you sweated through every pitch and had any investment in the game at all, it was as good a Carolina baseball game as you will ever see.

Wait a minute. That's not right. It was as good a Carolina game as you will ever see. Any sport, any time, any place. Don't believe it? Ask Roy Williams, who starting making congratulatory phone calls as soon as the ball cleared the fence.

Andrew Miller won't forget it. This is a person who was picked sixth in the major league draft by the Detroit Tigers five days ago. He has millions of dollars in his future. And yet he never looked even one percent as happy at any point during the draft process as he did when he came sprinting in from the bullpen after Flack's second homer.

Sprinting doesn't really do justice to what Miller was doing.

"I was right there with you for a second," reliever and fellow dasher Tyler Trice told Miller after the game. "But then, bang, you were gone!"

Miller moved faster and looked happier than any other time during his Tar Heel career. Flack rounded third with a convoy of teammates, Miller among them. That says it all about this team. That a player with so many reasons to look toward the future could be so immersed in the moment is a tribute to everyone involved.

It was just four months ago that the lefthanded pitcher sat in a Boshamer Stadium dugout discussing the potential pregame PA system playlist for this year's team. Being a junior and elder member of the rotation comes with privileges, so the UNC marketing staff wanted his input on what songs should be played.

"I don't think we should play Back Home In Omaha anymore," Miller said, speaking of the ESPN theme song to the College World Series. "We haven't earned it. We haven't been there. We shouldn't play it until we earn it."

Saturday night, Miller was among a happy throng of players and parents and coaches who gathered in the team hotel lobby to watch "SportsCenter" for a clip of what they had all just experienced. It was almost as if everyone needed independent verification that what they had just seen really happened. They thought they had seen it. But had they really?

When Carolina pitcher Robert Woodard left his Charlotte home to come to Chapel Hill to begin his freshman year, he brought with him a bulletin board with several pieces of motivational material tacked to it. Phrases, tips, words to remember.

Three years later, one part of the board--which still holds a prominent place in his Chapel Hill bedroom--has not changed. It's a simple notecard with one simple word written in big, bold letters:

"Omaha."

Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.