CHAPEL HILL – The Tar Heel baseball team is back on the practice field this week getting ready for the NCAA tournament, which gets underway Friday.

For the first time ever, Carolina scored the overall No. 1 seed in the tournament—another milestone in what has already been an historic season. The 2013 Tar Heels won the ACC regular season title and followed that up last weekend with a dramatic victory in the conference tourney—their first ACC tournament championship since 2007 and only their second in 23 years. In the process, the Heels smashed their old record for most wins in a single season—and junior third baseman Colin Moran broke the team’s single-season RBI record as well, on his way to the ACC’s Player of the Year award. Kent Emanuel won ACC Pitcher of the Year honors as well.

With all that success, UNC is a heavy favorite to advance to the College World Series in Omaha for the sixth time in eight years—and perhaps even take home what would be their first-ever national championship.

Regardless of what happens in the coming weeks, though, head coach Mike Fox says the 2013 Tar Heels are already a memorable team.

“This has been a special group,” he said Monday at Boshamer Stadium. “Right from the fall, this team had an unbelievable work ethic and three really good seniors that were great leaders for us…(and) this team’s very humble, I like that about them more than anything else. Colin doesn’t bring any attention to himself, and Kent’s the same way…we prefer to stay in the background and just go out and play…

“I like this team. I’ve liked this team from the very beginning. They make it fun.”

The Tar Heels begin NCAA tournament play on Friday at 6:00, in Boshamer Stadium against No. 4 seed Canisius. As always, we’ll broadcast that game live on 97.9 FM WCHL, and stream it live here at Chapelboro.com.

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