Bosh Magic: Tar Heels Celebrate Mike Fox, Grads With Memorable Sweep of Florida State
UNC secured its 3rd straight series win in epic fashion
When many of the nation’s top programs came calling a little more than a year ago, North Carolina’s Alberto Osuna could have gone anywhere.
The Mauldin, South Carolina, native could have returned to his home state and played for any of its great teams after receiving only five scholarship offers — all from junior colleges — in high school. He could have also parlayed his sensational second season at Walters State into the chance to play in a major city or used it as a springboard for his professional career. Instead, he chose to become a Tar Heel, a decision driven by his desire to be part of a program with such a rich history — and to help make more.
Osuna has been open about that throughout his up-and-down first season in Chapel Hill. That was the last thing on his mind, though, as he stepped into the batter’s box Thursday night with UNC trailing by one and down to its final out in the ninth.
Just an inning earlier, Osuna had come to the plate against electric left-hander Wyatt Crowell and struck out on three straight sliders. With the tying run on second base in the ninth, Crowell turned to the pitch again, inducing a swinging strike and dropping in another looking to quickly go up 0-2. At that point, Scott Forbes was all but certain that Crowell would try to overpower Osuna with his 95-98 mph fastball. But he stuck to the slider, and Osuna took two for balls and somehow fouled off another.
On 2-2, Crowell threw his ninth slider in as many pitches to Osuna. And the 6-foot-1, 240-pounder made him pay, using an effortless one-handed swing to muscle the ball over the left-field wall for a walk-off three-run homer, sending UNC to a 7-5 victory.
By the time Osuna rounded third, his teammates surrounded home plate. He launched his helmet skyward, raised his arms and skipped the rest of the way, disappearing into a mosh pit from which he didn’t emerge until his jersey was ripped off completely. As if he would have wanted it any other way.
“Moments like that,” Osuna said, “that’s what you commit for.”
But not even the greatest of Tar Heels can say they’ve experienced a series quite like UNC’s sweep of the Seminoles, as Osuna’s walk-off proved to be just the start of one of the most memorable weekends in recent Boshamer Stadium history.
That expectation was set before the series started, as UNC announced on May 9 that former head coach Mike Fox would be honored before Friday’s game. Dubbed “Mike Fox Appreciation Night,” the event was advertised as a chance to properly recognize Fox — who retired after 22 seasons at the helm of his alma mater in August 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. But it was so much more.
With several former players in attendance and his family on the field alongside him, UNC retired Fox’s No. 30, which joined those of Dave Lemonds (22), B.J. Surhoff (9), Andrew Miller (33) and Dustin Ackley (13) as the only ones so honored. Fox was also awarded The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest civilian honor in the state of North Carolina, in an emotional 10-minute ceremony.
“I've just been unbelievably blessed,” said Fox, who helped the Tar Heels to 948 wins, three ACC Championships and seven College World Series appearances in his tenure. “I said when I retired that I was able to do what I loved, at a place that I loved, with people that I loved. … I've been a Tar Heel since I was (a child). To come here, be able to play here, there is something special about coaching at your alma mater. It’s hard to explain. I thank God every day that I was here.”
He’s not the only one.
If not for Fox — whom he played and coached for at North Carolina Wesleyan before following to UNC in 1999 — Forbes would’ve never ended up in Chapel Hill. As such, he was determined to make the day one his mentor will never forget. And he knew his players shared the same sentiment.
“They had no chance,” said Forbes of Florida State. “I felt like, ‘OK, it’s gonna be a tough day for somebody to beat us.’ And that was extremely special for me, obviously, because I wouldn’t be sitting here without the opportunity that I was given. So, just to watch it and to see everybody come and it to go about as perfect as it could? We knew that, for it to go as well as we needed it to go, we also needed to win.”
The Tar Heels knew that wouldn’t be easy against Seminoles ace Parker Messick, the nation’s strikeout leader and owner of a 2.94 ERA entering Friday. But after giving up two first-inning runs, Brandon Schaeffer out-pitched the much-hyped lefty, finishing his night with three runs allowed on eight hits and a walk with two strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. That, in turn, energized UNC’s bats, which scored four runs off Messick and two more on a pair of defensive miscues before Danny Serretti sealed the 10-4 series-clinching victory with his eighth-inning grand slam.
Three years ago, Schaeffer met Fox on his first recruiting trip to Chapel Hill. And although he never played for the legendary coach, the significance of Friday’s game wasn’t lost on the WVU Potomac State transfer, who pitched brilliantly with the No. 30 painted behind him on the mound.
“Honestly, it was pretty special to be able to take the mound on a night like tonight,” Schaeffer said. “… He’s been texting me throughout the year, saying good job, this or that. He's a great guy first, and then he's a great coach. It was just real special to be able to go out there and do that for him tonight.”
The Tar Heels, however, weren’t finished.
Saturday’s series and regular-season finale was Senior Day for UNC — and a notable one at that. Largely because of their success developing players who are good enough to be drafted before their senior years, the Tar Heels entered Saturday having honored about three seniors per year since 2010. But because of the extra year of eligibility that was given by the NCAA due to COVID-19, UNC recognized a whopping 11 players — all of whom have completed their degrees — before Saturday’s game.
Among those celebrated was Angel Zarate, who wasted little time leaving his mark on what could be his last game at Boshamer Stadium, sending star lefty Bryce Hubbart’s first pitch over the right-field wall for a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first.
“I was just trying to be on time,” said Zarate of his third first-pitch leadoff homer of the season. “I felt really calm. I wasn't trying to go, ‘Alright, first pitch I’m going to hit a (homer) and set the tone.’ It just happened. I knew that they had a lot of lefties and, to be quite honest, I went into that at-bat like, ‘Another lefty; let’s just get this over with.’ But I put a good swing on it and you saw what happened.”
From there, there was no looking back, as the Tar Heels added 10 more runs over the next six innings and the graduate quintet of Will Sandy, Nik Pry, Gage Gillian, Caden O’Brien and Connor Ollio — along with Connor Bovair — blanked the Seminoles, 11-0. The shutout was UNC’s fourth of the season and its first in ACC play. It also served as the final exclamation point on a monumental weekend.
“All these seniors, they’ve helped build this place,” said Vance Honeycutt, who, with two homers in the series, sits just one shy of Aaron Sabato’s UNC freshman record of 18. “They've been here for some four, some five years. We were just doing it for them, and I thought it was pretty cool to get the sweep for all these guys.”
As meaningful as the series feels now for the Tar Heels, it has the potential to become even more significant over the next few weeks.
With the sweep, UNC finished the regular season with an overall record of 34-19 and 15-15 in the ACC. Not only did that help earn the Tar Heels the No. 8 seed in the ACC Tournament and essentially secure them a spot in the NCAA Tournament, but it gives them hope heading into Charlotte — where they’ll open pool play at 7 p.m. Tuesday against 12th-seeded Clemson — that they can still capture a regional bid.
Even if they don’t, the fact that they find themselves in the position they’re in now, having won 11 of their last 13 games, is impressive in itself considering where they were a month ago. And if they can somehow find a way to carry their momentum through the NCAA Tournament, this weekend will surely be remembered as an integral part of their journey.
“I think just the adversity that we’ve had, this year, last year, going through that stretch this year, we just know we’re never out of it,” Serretti said. “We’ve got guys like (Osuna) who can hit one out with one arm. Believing and having that Bosh Magic helps out a little bit.”