Former (and perennial) Diamond Heel Chad Flack went to Omaha three times as a player in 2006, 2007 and 2008, then again as a graduate assistant in 2009.
You may remember him for his 8th AND 9th inning home run against Alabama to send Carolina to the College World Series.
Heading into the Super Regionals and following the two highest-rated regional college baseball games ever on ESPN against LSU, I had the chance to sit down with Chad earlier this week to discuss the current team.
What’s going on with the team this week? How do you prepare for a super regional and should you fear a hangover after all the emotion of last weekend?
When you play in college, you feel invincible. I probably could have played the next day and been good to go, to be honest. This time of year, it’s just excitement. You have been preparing all year for this opportunity. The coaches obviously put in a ton of hours writing scouting reports and making sure we understood everything about the opposing team, the pitching staff, what they like to throw and all those things.
But in reality, as a player, you enjoy nothing more than baseball. You don’t have school right now. You just train and have a good time. These guys definitely could have played the next day. When you have a group of guys that enjoy being together on and off the field, there’s no better time of year in their eyes.
LSU had about 21 hits in (their) first game earlier today and you start to have a confident lineup, that lined up some balls earlier in the day, you can play three games and it’ll be good. When they got hot like they did, it’s almost positive to keep playing too. As long as you can throw.
It’s just about knowing that whoever has the bat at the end can win this game. But I think it’s a testament to the type of UNC team we’re seeing.
They have a lot of leaders. They play for the name on the front of the jersey and they play for each other and they have that mentality of “do it because my teammate is going to do it.” “And when you have a team that is not only talented, but believes in each other, with guys on the bench that are extremely supportive, it’s a special group. Wear this jersey; none of them take it for granted. And that makes everyone want to cheer them on even harder.
LSU’s Tommy White has become something of a villain to Carolina fans in the area, just a generally punched face and hateful essence. Plus, obviously, at Oregon State, when you were playing, was there anyone else that you particularly hated playing against or couldn’t stand?
I think it’s more of a fan thing. As a player, you don’t pay much attention to it as long as that mutual respect exists.
I remember (my sister) Ali was about five years old when I was playing and she absolutely hated this pitcher from Miami who ended up being the closer in the major leagues. He was very, very good, but he had long hair and a mustache and all that sort of thing, and she called him “that dirty pitcher.” She wasn’t a fan.
Are there any surprises with this team? Do you think someone appeared out of nowhere?
I don’t know if I would say surprises. On our pitching staff, there are people in roles that we didn’t really expect at the beginning of the year because our two best guys, at least at the beginning of the year, went down. So yes, Sprague’s arrival and the success he’s had has been extremely impressive.
And I really think DeCaro will be put in this Friday night spot – this kid is still supposed to be a high school kid. The way he handled that was very impressive. He will be a very special player for us over the next few years.
Lots of drama last weekend. What’s it like to get started, especially on the big stage?
A home run in the regular season is a lot of fun. It’s a party and all that kind of stuff. But when the season is on the line, when it matters most, in the NCAA tournament, it’s almost like you become a little numb to be honest with you, really. You go up with the certainty that you will succeed. But when you finally do that, you hear the fans and you see your team get as excited as them, it’s just a little blurry for a little while. There’s no feeling like it, knowing you’ve done all the work, all year, to play for the name on the front of the jersey.
You care so much about your teammates and your coaches and all that, to be able to be the one to come out in this kind of way, in this situation, for all these people that you love and appreciate so much, I think it just takes it to a whole new level.
Thank you, Chad, for your time. And with the intensity of Vance Honeycutt’s win in Supers’ first game, I think we’ll leave it there.
