North Carolina could be nearing the end of its most successful baseball run ever, but its players and coaches are feeling no pressure to bring home a College World Series title.

North Carolina will play in the series for the fourth consecutive season starting on Sunday, with a game against Arizona State. The three previous trips came up short, including national runner-up finishes in 2007 and 2006, but third baseman Kyle Seager said he's confident that his team will not be burdened by outside expectations.

"We're definitely ready to go," said Seager. "We definitely feel the need to go ahead and make a move here, but we're not going to go so far as to say that we have to win.

"We feel that we've done a good job. We feel that we've put ourselves in a good position to win, so we're not going to put too much pressure on ourselves."
If anything, Seager said he sees a composed team that is going about its work in practice this week, despite the distractions created by Major League Baseball's first-year player draft.

"It seems to me we're pretty relaxed," Seager said. "We have a pretty good little calm demeanor about us, I think.

"It's not like it's old news or we're not excited about it, or anything like that. We know what we have to do. It's more of a focused yet a kind of trying not to do too much approach that we're taking."

The difference, according to starting pitcher Alex White, is the team's experience, and the three previous appearances in Omaha, Neb., the site of the Series.

All of the veterans know what it's like to step on the field at Rosenblatt Stadium and play in front of 20,000. White, whose six NCAA Tournament wins are the most in school history, said he knows the keys to pitching successfully in the series: hitting key spots around the plate, throwing the right pitches at the right time, and being a little lucky.

"I think our team's just ready to get out there and play, and try to make a run at this thing and give it our best shot," White said.

Coach Mike Fox said he's not going to make radical changes in his team's routine or his approach to the series. He said he's looked back on the Tar Heels' three previous trips and can find nothing that can be called a fatal flaw.

He said he wants his players to enjoy the series and the side trips planned by the tournament hosts.

Fox said he will also tell the players that he wants to bring a title home to Boshamer Stadium, which would be the first in school history.

"There's always a fine line out there with how much structure you have and if you keep the kids under lock and key," Fox said. "Experience tells me this is the kind of team where I trust them."

Garrett Gore, a senior right fielder, has already had one memorable closing moment in his North Carolina career. In his last at-bat in Boshamer in a 9-3 win over East Carolina that clinched the series berth, he belted a home run 400 feet to dead center.

He has one more finish in mind, given the idea by the North Carolina basketball team that won the NCAA Tournament in April.

"I told somebody earlier this year that I'd like to go out like the seniors on the basketball team did," Gore said. "That would be just a storybook ending.

"But right now, we're just going to focus on Arizona State and see what they have in store for us, and take it from there."