North Carolina — A True No. 1

By Jorge Bannister
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

With two teams in the top 5, and a total of six in the top 25 (according to my poll), no conference is better than the ACC.

I’ll start at the top of the conference, and when I mean the top, I am referring to North Carolina (32-10, 13-7).

The Tar Heels swept the Miami Hurricanes (26-13, 11-10) this past weekend in convincing fashion. It started Friday night, when junior All-American Alex White threw a complete-game, one-hitter against the Canes. He hurled 121 pitches, 80 of them for strikes — meaning two out of every three pitches were strikes.

White improved to 6-1 with a 3.14 ERA. He has 72 strikeouts and has walked just 23 batters.

The other two weekend starters have been solid, too. Despite struggling early on Saturday against Miami, senior Adam Warren settled down and kept the Heels in the game long enough to be able to tie the game and then win it, 4-3, in the 10th.

Warren is 4-2 with a 3.33 ERA. He has 52 Ks and he too has walked 23 batters.

Though his ERA is 5.86, Sunday starter Matt Harvey improved to 5-1. He has given up the same amount of long balls as White (7), but the homers off of him have come with other runners on. Harvey has allowed a total of 32 runs, 28 of them earned in just 43 innings.

His high ERA may come back to haunt him in the postseason, however. Harvey has been able to regroup after giving up innings of 2-or-more runs to settle into a groove before imploding again, but that is a formula for disaster in the postseason where teams are known to play at their highest level. Keep one thing in mind, though — Harvey is just a sophomore.

North Carolina has never been a pitchers-only program, and it shows with this year’s offensive numbers.

Junior Kyle Seager has been the true leader in the lineup. The Tar Heels second baseman is hitting .404 with 2 homers and 37 RBIs. He’s stolen a team-leading nine bases, and his on-base percentage is second on the team at .487.

At the top of the lineup, center fielder Ben Bunting, just a sophomore, has been phenomenal at setting the table for UNC. He’s hitting .330, and has walked more times than he has struck out, 22-14.

Two major things in this lineup are freshman shortstop Levi Michael and redshirt junior outfielder Mike Cavasinni.

Michael graduated North Davidson High School (Welcome, N.C.) in December, enrolled at UNC in January and has been the starting shortstop for all 42 games. He’s made a seamless transition into the college game, hitting .294 and hitting 10 homers while driving in 38 runs. Michael’s home run and RBI totals are second on the team.

Meanwhile, Cavasinni is just looking to complete a full season. Last season he took a medical red shirt part way through because he bunted a ball off his face which shattered his orbital bone. Coach Mike Fox said just before the Miami series that he’s seeing the ball better and better as the season has progressed so he expects his average (currently at .248) to rise closer to or over .300.

If the season were to end today, UNC would have the No. 3 seed in the ACC. (Georgia Tech, who is also in the Coastal Division, at 27-8-1 and 13-5-1 would be the No. 1 seed and Florida State, atop the Atlantic Division at 26-12 and 12-7, would be the No. 2 seed) and would face sixth-seeded Miami in the first round.

An aside: Because the ACC has two divisions — Atlantic and Coastal — the top teams from each division get the top two seeds and the rest are seeded based on winning percentage with eight teams making the conference tournament.

As of right now, even though they’re a No. 3 seed, UNC is the favorite in this tournament. Of course, the tournament is still a month away and anything can happen.