May 15, 2008

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) - The long shadow of the Atlantic Coast Conference seemingly stretches all the way to the coastal North Carolina city where for years UNC Wilmington's proud baseball program lurked under the radar.

Maybe all the Seahawks needed to begin emerging from that darkness was a season-long power surge.

"We really didn't feel like this club would have this much power," coach Mark Scalf said Thursday.

Surprise, coach. The nation's leading run-producer anchors a lineup that ranks as one of the most prolific in Division I, and previously helped lead the mid-major school with the modest tradition to 21 straight wins.

And after claiming their school-record 40th regular-season victory later that night by beating Old Dominion 3-2, the Seahawks are starting to believe that they're finally approaching the level of prominence that their power-conference counterparts always seem to enjoy.

"We've done a lot this year, but I know we're not finished," third baseman Nate Hall said. "I know that everybody says SEC, ACC, all those big schools, but I know that we, we're better, or as good ... They deserve their credit, too, but I don't think we should be pushed under the rug, because we contend - just like we're doing this year."

Once again, UNC Wilmington (40-21-1) claimed its place atop its mid-major league, the Colonial Athletic Association, which already has awarded at least a share of its regular-season title to the Seahawks for the fourth time in six years. And perhaps the primary reason for this year's success has been the unexpected jolt delivered to the lineup by catcher Mark Carver, a redshirt senior who entered the final three games with a Division I-leading 76 RBIs and a total of 20 home runs - five times more than he hit in any of his first three seasons.

Then, he added his school-record-tying 21st homer in the eighth inning of the Seahawks' most recent victory.

"No real reason to explain it - we've always had a good approach at the plate, all throughout the lineup," Carver said. "There's no real reason why the power numbers have jumped up so much. ... I always felt I could have a breakout year like this, but it's definitely surprising."

And, apparently, contagious. UNC Wilmington is scoring nearly nine runs per game, has hit double figures in 18 of its 52 games and last week reeled off a school-record 14 runs in the fifth inning of a 23-4 rout of James Madison. The Seahawks rank seventh nationally with 85 home runs - they're hitting more than 1 1/2 homers per game - and are 10th with 452 runs scored.

"We felt like a very good doubles club, and we built our ball club with that in mind, because with doubles you tend to score a lot of runs," Scalf said. "But this year's club, we've been able to hit some home runs, and we've been able to hit our share of doubles as well.

"The majority of the year, from (spots) one to nine, we've been able to drive runs in, we've been able to move runners and we've done a pretty reasonable job in situational baseball."

That timely hitting fueled the long winning streak, tops by any team this season and clearly this team's best achievement so far. A victory against Fordham on Feb. 29 started the reversal of a 1-5 start, and after a perfect March the wins didn't stop until a trip to Northeastern on April 5, capping a stretch of dominant play that Hall described as "unconscious."

"We were just on fire and doing everything that you can think of," he added. "Everything went our way - pitching, defense, hitting, putting up 12, 13 runs a game."

It already has been a record-filled season for the Seahawks, who during 30-plus years in Division I have produced only a few major leaguers - with perhaps the most prominent being Cleveland Indians pitching coach Carl Willis. Now UNCW hopes its success is rewarded by the NCAA selection committee with a host site for one of the 16 regional tournaments.

UNC Wilmington has submitted its first bid to host a regional, after hitting the road for all three of its appearances since 2003. It is ranked as high as 22nd in recent unofficial replications of the RPI formula, while the CAA as a whole ranks just 10th.

"It would really take our program to the next level that we want to go," Scalf said. "Our ultimate goal ... is to get to Omaha, and it's no secret among everybody in college baseball that one of the best ways to get to Omaha is to play at home.

"I think we're well on our way to creating our own (identity)," he added.