Is This the Best Baseball Team in UNC History?

Jun 18, 2013; Omaha, NE, USA; North Carolina Tarheels second baseman Mike Zolk (3) fields the ground ball against the LSU Tigers during the College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports

COMMENTARY | Win, Loss, Win, Loss, and a Win. That describes the Tar Heel’s last 5 games in the Super Regionals and the College World Series combined. If that trend continues, the Tar Heels season will come to an end tonight against NC State. The CWS is a double elimination tournament. UNC has already lost one game so far, and we all know who that was against, the wolf pack of NC State. If you have any friends that are State fans, or more like acquaintances, they have probably given you a hard time. They might not let you hear the end of it. Losing to them is bad enough, losing to them twice in less than a week, and letting State end our season, would be a nightmare ending. 

The Tar Heels have never really looked like themselves throughout the NCAA tournament. Florida Atlantic had them on the brink of elimination, as did South Carolina in the Super Regionals. Some teams would consider just getting to the CWS a success. But not UNC.

The Tar Heels have made the CWS 6 times out of the last 8 years. That is a pretty good accomplishment, but that has been it. Out of the 6 times being in it, they have yet to win one. Not a single ring to show for it. But this years team has done something no other UNC team has done….ever. Being the number 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament. They also broke the school record for most wins in a single season, with 52. With that being said, does that make them the best team in school history? Technically, yes. But after doing some research on past teams, one team came to mind as being better than the 2013 team, and that was the 2006 team.

Some of you might remember the 2006 team that lost to Oregon State in the CWS Final. Bad, bad memories. Lots of errors cost the Tar Heels a championship, along with a memorable 7 run 4th inning in Game 2 for Oregon State that propelled them to win Game 2 and go on to win the series. Some of you might have no clue what I am talking about right now, but that is ok, this was a long 7 years ago. But to manager Mike Fox, it might feel a lot shorter than that. It was the closest his UNC team has ever been to a CWS title. This was a very talented group of players. MLB players such as Andrew Miller, Daniel Bard, Adam Warren, and Tim Federowicz were on that team. Andrew Miller was the ace of the staff, along with Bard and Warren. Federowicz was the power hitting catcher. Some of you might remember the name Chad Flack. Flack was one of the best power hitting infielders in UNC history. He sent the Tar Heels to the 2006 CWS with a walk off Home run against Alabama. Seth Williams, Jay Cox, and Mike Cavasinni were other notable players. If you do not learn anything else from this article, at least you now know how to spell Federowicz and Cavasinni. I admit I had to double check to see if I had their names spelled right.

But who had the better overall team? Record wise, the 2013 team did. But that does not mean they were the most talented team. Lets compare them position by position, and who has the advantage over the other.