Canes baseball suffers late setback, but end-of-season honors flow like wine

Two nights after I felt vindicated, the Hurricanes baseball team brought me right down and made me look foolish. I thought they'd rise to the occasion, at home, to make a "statement" this weekend about who the preeminent team in the country was. Alas, they did not, and UNC is the new top dog. Even club stud Yonder Alonso had to concede on Saturday that UNC deserved the honors. As disappointing as the late-game slide was, it means nothing. The Canes finish 43-8 (23-5 in the ACC), #2 in the country, and enter the post-season poised to host regionals and super-regionals, and have as good a shot as any team to ascend to the pinnacle of the sport.

Speaking of pinnacles, Jim Morris was named ACC coach of the year on Monday. The Canes also had 8 guys selected to the All-ACC team. Chris Hernandez was named ACC Freshman of the Year, while Hernandez, Blake Tekotte, Yonder Alonso, Jemile Weeks, Ryan Jackson, and Mark Sobolewski all garnered 1st-team All-ACC honors. Rounding out the honoraria, pitchers Eric Erickson and Carlos Gutierrez were named 2nd-team all-conference.