It's a little more difficult to write this week due to the recent losses, but don't worry the team is not panicking.  We have yet to play our best baseball and we still plan on reaching our goals for the season.

During yesterday's game against Charlotte, we were graced by the presence of one only known to the team as the "uh-huh" guy.  The last three years, I have only seen him at games against Charlotte and Miami.  He has yet to cheer for Carolina, but I think he has a secret crush on us. The "uh-huh" guy receives his nickname because after everything he says comes the phrase "uh-huh." He also carries about 10 different signs with his favorite phrase on it in different colors and designs.  Also, he's the loudest person in the crowd so a typical heckle might sound like, "He's gonna walk him uh-huh. Unload and reload uh-huh.  Time to start a rally uh-huh."  In the end, it's one of those things you can enjoy as a fan or player.

Tuesday night, we had the opportunity to play in front of a record crowd at UNC Wilmington.  I think half of them were on the pass list under Garrett Gore's name.  The highlight of the bus ride to the game was a "rap battle" between Chase Jones and Logan Munson.  Basically, it was a back and forth putdown session consisting of four line rhymes.  Chase started out strong, but I believe it was ruled a tie after Logan finished strong.  The subject matter varied from body shapes to former relationships.

In response to a comment last week:
Best walk-out song:  My favorite would probably be Nate Striz's (Hillbilly Deluxe - Brooks and Dunn) because the song fits his personality perfectly.  A lot of teammates also like Brian Moran's (The Rising -Bruce Springsteen).

Nastiest Pitch:  There are many to choose from, but a few to note are Matt Harvey's curveball, Alex White's splitter, and Colin Bates' two-seamer.

Reason why coach won't let me hit:  Believe me, you don't want to see me pinch hitting anytime soon.  I was an average high school hitter, but I always struggled with velocity and sliders.  I bet you would never guess that I was a middle infielder in high school when I wasn't pitching.

Last weekend at Virginia Tech, we were fortunate enough to squeeze in two games with the rainy weather, but we also had a lot of downtime at the hotel.  Most people, including myself, ate, slept, ate, watched college basketball (including the six-overtime thriller between Syracuse and Connecticut), and then slept some more.  In the room beside mine, I did hear Coach McCay and Coach Flack wrestling at one point.  The delay on Sunday's game allowed us to have "chapel," our miniature version of church.  We are blessed to have our own preacher, teammate Mike McKee, who delivers great sermons every Sunday.  After the game, we arrived back in Chapel Hill around 11, unpacked our baseball gear and then had class the next morning. This busy schedule is one of the very few disadvantages of being a student-athlete.

Since March Madness began today, I felt it would be appropriate to talk about some of my predictions.  Don't worry NCAA, my bracket was completed only for fun with no money involved.  My Final Four consists of North Carolina, Connecticut, Villanova and Michigan State, with North Carolina taking home the championship.  My bracket is always way off so I know I will be wrong, but it is fun arguing your picks like it is an exact science.  Going along with the college basketball theme, our bus driver last weekend went by the name of Lorenzo Charles.  If you aren't sure who this is, look him up on YouTube and you will find that he made the game winning dunk against Houston to win the 1983 NCAA Basketball National Championship.  Yes, I know he's from NC State and the bus was red and black on the inside, but he was fun to talk to and a great person.

Interesting Stuff:
1.    Stadium Update - Bullpen phones were installed today, which makes me wonder who will make the first prank call down to the pen.

2.    Mike Copeland, our PA announcer/team rapper, commented on last week's blog saying that the 2009 Carolina Baseball rap is almost completed. If you haven't heard the 2008 version, you're missing out.

3.    The Duke Blue Devils are coming to town this weekend all the way from Durham.  They are known as our school's rival, so it should be a fun weekend.

4.    I appreciate all your comments and responses to the blog. I really enjoy hearing from everyone.

 We just arrived in Blacksburg in preparation for our series against Virginia Tech this weekend.  It took us around three and a half hours via bus.  Entertainment during the trip included watching the ACC basketball tournament, sleeping, playing video games, and watching movies.  The last 45 minutes of the trip, Team 2 (Mike McKee, Ryan Leach, Greg Holt, and Mike Cavasinni) beat Team 1 (Garrett Gore, Patrick Johnson, Chase Jones, and myself) in a game of Catch Phrase.  If you aren't familiar with the game, you try to describe a word to your teammates without saying the word as you pass around the game piece.  If the time runs out and your team is holding the game piece you lose the round.  The first to seven wins.  PJ had the worst clue of all by describing the word barbeque as meat with sauce on it.

I think this is an appropriate week to talk about the art of a rally since we had two come from behind wins since my last blog.  I will start off with our 2's rally since many people have asked me what exactly we are doing in the dugout.  When there are 2 balls 2 strikes and 2 outs when we are batting, we initiate the rally.  When the opposing pitcher toes the rubber, we rub the bill of our cap with two fingers until he comes set. Once set, we take off our hat and shake it near the ground.  Right before the pitcher releases the ball, you pop the hat and put it back on as soon as possible.  If the count runs to 3-2 or we get on base, we "ride it out" by wearing our hat backwards.  If there is a foul ball or the pitcher steps off, you must "wipe it off" and begin again.  I'm not sure of the origin of this rally technique, but it has been proven to work numerous times over my four-year career.

Another popular and effective rally maneuver used by Carolina baseball is known as popcorn.  Popcorn is very simple in the manner that every one claps at odd times to make it sound like popcorn is popping.  When someone initiates this rally, we refer to it as "putting a bag in."  Popcorn was key to our comeback versus Appalachian State on Tuesday.  One of my favorite rallies is when Coach Forbes tells a pitcher to run down to the outfield fence and do five jumping jacks in between innings.  Interestingly enough, this does work from time to time, especially when it is Brian Moran.  Other rallies include different ways of wearing our hat, such as no hats, backward hats, and inside out hats.  Yes, we are superstitious.

A few interesting tidbits:
1.     Garrett Gore's robbing catch on Saturday was most likely the best play I have seen in my baseball career.
2.    Mark Fleury update - He was screaming polar bear and koala bear repetitively on the bus. My last interaction with him made me think he was portraying an animal escaped from the zoo.
3.    Seth Baldwin ordered the "Big Daddy" for dinner in a macho voice in an attempt to woo our waitress.
4.    It's snowing.

Last weekend, we were able to squeeze in three games in two days due to inclement weather.  Saturday we had a rain delay for over an hour, which meant we had to find something to do to entertain ourselves.  Some players went to grab some coffee from the upper level due to the chilling temperature.  Others tried to find out how many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches they could make and eat.  (Bread, peanut butter, jelly and fruit are generously provided for the team during the game so that we aren't playing on an empty stomach. I've found that a peanut butter and banana sandwich gets the job done every time.)  In the locker room, many were watching Talladega Nights, a movie that is funny every time you watch it.  Coach Forbes found his own way to entertain himself by playing with our new video cameras installed in each dugout and zooming in on Coach Jackson.

Every year, there are phrases or words that catch on throughout the team. For example, a couple of years ago, Rob Wooten introduced the concept of "do talking."  "Do talking" is basically saying the opposite of what you mean.  So if you want someone to be quiet, you would say "do talk." Its very confusing so if you don't understand, I don't blame you, but I'm glad that it phased out even though Garrett Davis, Rob's cousin, carries on the tradition.  This year, the popular word is nestle.  According to the dictionary, nestle means to be naturally or pleasantly situated.  In baseball terms, a nestler is a ball that is not hit solid, but falls in front of the outfielder for a base hit.  So whenever a ball has a chance to fall in, the whole dugout is screaming "nestle," hoping we can encourage the ball to pleasantly situate for a hit.

Yesterday's win over Gardner-Webb was Coach Fox's 1,000th victory as a head coach.  After the game in the locker room, coach was presented a Tar Heel jersey that had his name on the back and the number 1,000 below it.  As a team we were honored to be a part of such a great milestone, and we are ready to begin the journey for the next 1,000 wins this weekend. 

Conference play starts tomorrow against Clemson, which is exciting because the intensity is turned up a notch.  On a personal note, this week I get the chance to play against two of my former high school teammates, Matt Sanders and David Towarnicky.  Matt plays for Clemson and David plays for Appalachian State.  It will be fun to see these guys and compete against them.