June 12, 2009
By Adam
Lucas
When the eight participants in the 2009 College World Series convene today in Omaha for open practices, the event will bring together some of the most potent sluggers in college baseball. The cleanup position in the lineup, of course, is the spot to find the biggest bashers.
Fullerton's Jared Clark is hitting .363 with a staggering 81 RBI. Arkansas' Andy Wilkins is hitting .326 with 18 homers. It's not just the stats that are outsized for the eight cleanup hitters; even their size is impressive. Arizona State's Kole Calhoun is listed at 5-foot-10, 200 pounds, and Oprah would like to borrow the Sun Devils' scale.
Then there's Carolina, a team that may very well start a lineup on Sunday that features Ryan Graepel at cleanup. Yes, that's 6-foot-1, 165-pound Ryan Graepel, the junior with two homers and 39 RBI.
Head coach Mike Fox put Graepel in the batting order's fourth slot in the NCAA tournament against Dartmouth. He's been there for four of the past five games, and the Tar Heels have scored 40 runs in those four games. It's one of those quirks of baseball that makes the sport so unpredictable. Graepel doesn't fit anyone's profile of a cleanup hitter--the last time he hit there was in 12-year-old Little League--yet for some reason the offense has come alive with him hitting fourth. With Dustin Ackley entrenched in the second spot and Kyle Seager in the third spot, he's been able to take a different approach.
"When I'm hitting behind Dusty and Kyle I know the only thing I can't do is strike out," Graepel said. "If I put the ball in play, good things are going to happen. I'm in a really good situation, because I just have to move them over so the guys behind me can knock them in. Every time I come up it seems like Ackley and Seager are on base."
The statistics almost support that conclusion. Of Graepel's 18 cleanup at-bats, a dozen of them have come with at least one runner on base. He's had productive plate appearances and worked counts, and he saw 45 pitches in his 10 super-regional at-bats.
He could find himself hitting cleanup again Sunday if Arizona State chooses lefty Josh Spence as their game one starter. That's very different than last year's trip to Omaha, when Graepel had just taken over for Garrett Gore at shortstop and hit ninth in all five Tar Heel games, including a 3-for-4 effort against LSU in the first game of the 2008 Series.
Then, Graepel was still a relative newcomer. Now, he's started all 63 games.
"It's a lot easier coming to the ballpark and having a good idea my name will be on the lineup card every day," Graepel says. "I know I need to get prepared mentally to play every day."
That includes playing a solid shortstop, one of the most important defensive positions on the field. He's played error-free defense in the postseason and is riding a streak of 12 straight games without an error.
The best measure of his defense isn't just fielding percentage. It's also the progress made by freshman second baseman Levi Michael, who is adjusting to a new position. The Michael/Graepel combination didn't turn a double play together until the until the 25th game of the season, but they turned two key ones together in the super-regionals--dispatching ECU, wins that were especially sweet for Graepel, a Greenville native--and two more in the regionals.
Much of the double-play improvement came as the duo adjusted to each other, with Graepel learning how Michael liked to receive the ball at second base--Graepel says the freshman prefers for the ball to come to him rather than having to go to the ball--to make the turn.
"It's that comfort level you have to get with your teammates," says Michael. "I'm glad Graepel picked that up, because I was struggling early in the season coming across the bag and closing myself off to make that throw. Now he's playing to my strengths and that's helped us turn some more double plays."
With Alex White, a ground-ball pitcher, throwing in Sunday's CWS opener, infield defense will again be crucial. But even if the Rosenblatt Stadium infield dirt provides some adversity, a more experienced Graepel says he's ready for it.
"It's so much easier this year understanding that I've been here before and know what to expect," he says. "That's how we look at it as a team. If we get down early, we understand they are 9-inning games and we have the poise to come back. We've reached the point that not everything is purely based on adrenaline."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of five books on Carolina basketball, including the upcoming book on the 2009 national title, One Fantastic Ride.
