This past week, Kirke and I fed our baseball passions with tickets to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) baseball tournament. We are huge baseball fans and season ticket holders to the University of North Carolina (UNC) baseball team. Our love for baseball also includes the Savannah Bananas, St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves. As a matter of fact, one of our retirement goals is to go to every Major League Baseball (MLB) ballpark in one season!

The tournament was held at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, North Carolina. If you are movie buff, you may remember Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon in the movie, Bull Durham, and yes, this is the same Durham Bulls referenced in the 1988 classic.

DBAP as it is known to locals, seats 10,000 people and is home to the Durham Bulls, the Triple A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays in MLB. As a result, it is an excellent ballpark that has great sight lines, lots of good food and many restaurants around it for pre and post-game meals.

Pool play is the set up for the tournament. This means that each team is placed into a pool of 3 and those three teams each play two games against the other teams in the pool. The team with the best record advances to the semi-finals and the two winners of those semi-finals games play for the championship. If there is a tie in pool play, the highest seeded team advances.

Games were scheduled Tuesday through Friday for pool play at 11am, 3pm and 7pm. That means a triple header every day!

Our favorite teams are UNC and Florida State. The Seminoles are in a rebuilding year so they did not make the tournament this year. UNC was there and they were our main focus.

We also cheer for other local teams. Being from the Town of Wake Forest, where Wake Forest University was located until 1956, we cheer for the Demon Deacons when they play, as long as they are not playing one of our teams. Unlike many, we also cheer for NC State as long as they are not playing UNC or FSU. As season ticket holders at NC State for a couple of years, we have been to many of their games and have many friends that are alumni.

Game one was Virginia Tech vs Boston College. In a 4 hour marathon, Boston College beat the Hokies 11-7. Because the game ran long, the next game did not start until almost 3:45.

Game two was the Tar Heels and Georgia Tech. One of our favorite players, Tomas Frick, the UNC catcher, directed a solid UNC defense and the Diamond Heels exploded for 11 runs to win the game by an 11-5 margin in a game that was decided early.

Game three was the nightcap and features local teams NC State and Duke. Duke had one of its best regular seasons in school history this year and came in highly touted hoping to improve their ranking for the NCAA tournament. In a nailbiter, NC State won 8-7 in extra innings.

One of the highlights of the week was meeting our new friends that sat behind us. NC State fans Lewis and Mindy and their son Justin. They are loyal followers of NC State and anyone that has been around the Wolfpack baseball program knows who they are. We spent the entire week getting to know each other and became fast friends. We look forward to seeing them at future games.

In addition to that group, we also met Jillian and her son Winston. They were there because Winston’s dad (and Jillian’s husband) Doug is an umpire in the ACC. Learning about their story and hearing the personal side of an umpire’s family was quite interesting. Winston even got to say, “Play Ball,” before one of the games. He was so fun to watch as we got to experience the games through a child’s eyes.

Day two included Pittsburgh beating Notre Dame 9-5, Virginia’s pummeling of Georgia Tech 15-1 and Clemson pounding Virginia Tech 14-5.

Unfortunately, Kirke had to go out of town on business so I was there with one of her best friends and my “baseball wife,” as we call her, Darlynn. Darlynn has been to many baseball games with us as well as tailgating and much more. She is like a part of our family so it is always fun to have her around.

Thursday was the first opportunity to see the #1 seeded Wake Forest Demon Deacons and their superstar pitcher Rhett Lowder. Lowder is a highly touted player who will likely be taken early in the first round of the MLB draft in June. He was on fire as he through 7 strong innings and the Deacs rolled 10-2 over Pittsburgh in the 1^st game.

The second games was expected to be a great matchup. North Carolina was taking on #2 seed Virginia. The Cavaliers were the favorite of many to win the tournament and after their 15-1 blowout of Georgia Tech the day before, it looked like they were on track to do just that.

In the first major upset of the tournament, the Tar Heels prevailed 10-2 behind the pitching of Jake Knapp. The lefty threw a great game and the offense provided run support. North Carolina looked like they were peaking at just the right time and advanced as the lowest seed to go to the semi-finals on Saturday. There, they would play the winner of Friday’s BC vs Clemson game.

I must interject here, there is one thing for me that is a must anytime I visit the DBAP. Rita’s custard is one of my favorite ballpark foods around. My dad and I always share one when he comes up for games and I get one every chance I get. As you can see, I didn’t miss my opportunity this year!

Game three of day three had #4 seeded Miami against #9 seeded NC State. The winner would move to the semi-finals on Saturday. Although the Wolfpack put up a good fight, the Hurricanes pulled out a 4-2 win and advanced to the semi-finals.

Friday came and brought us #3 seed Clemson vs Boston College. Although Clemson won the game 4-1, it was not as close as the score indicated. Clemson was clearly the better team and had it not been for leaving so many men on base, it would have been a blowout.

The two later games were meaningless as Miami beat Duke in the afternoon tilt and Wake Forest closed the day by beating Notre Dame 7-5 with some late game heroics. The good news is that Kirke arrived at home safely. I picked her up from the airport and we headed straight to the ballpark for the night game between WF and ND. After the game, there was a really good fireworks display so we stayed after to catch it.

Saturday’s games were scheduled to be played at 1pm and 5pm at DBAP but due to inclement weather, both games would start at 1pm. The Tar Heels and Clemson would play at DBAP and Miami and Wake Forest would play each other at Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill only 15 minutes down the road. That would allow both games to be played before the really bad weather set in.

We attended the UNC vs Clemson game of course and kept tabs on the Miami vs Wake Forest game via Twitter.

Kirke and I arrived early so that she could watch the players warm up. Following the team like we have this season, we have come to know some of the players and their parents personally. The intimate setting of the Durham Bulls Athletic Park allows for fans to be so close to the action and especially the warms ups.

We waited so that we could see our favorite players. Tomas Frick, the catcher, came out of the dugout to start his warmup. He saw us and as he normally does, came over to say hello and get a fist bump and we wished him good luck. He is an incredible young man and very polite. Frick and his roommate and battery mate, Connor Bovair, sat with us at a pre-season event and were just as nice as they could be to us, our daughter and our friends who were there with us.

Watching the pre-game rituals of the different players is always fun. Some are very loose and cracking jokes with each other, while others maintain great focus.

When it was time for the Star Spangled Banner, we, along with the players paused and put our hats over our hearts. The National Anthem always hits harder on Memorial Day weekend than most other times. I still get a tear in my eye and goosebumps whenever I hear it in person at an athletic event.

We went back to our seats and prepared to watch the game in the falling mist on a dreary Saturday afternoon.

Caden Grice of Clemson, who in my opinion, was the best pitcher I saw all week, shut down the Tar Heels while hitting a 2 RBI single and a home run on the day to lead the Tigers to a 10-4 victory over North Carolina.

The highlight of the game for UNC fans was a two HR performance from Frick. He ended up being named to the All-Tournament Team and it was well deserved.

Over in Chapel Hill, Miami took control of the game and beat Wake Forest 7-2 to set up an all orange matchup on Sunday.

That falling mist continued through Sunday and delayed the start of the championship game by two hours. As a result, Kirke and I decided to stay at home and watch the championship game on the ACC Network.

Clemson’s Riley Bertram hit a three-run homer, his first in a Clemson uniform, in the seventh inning. That homer gave Clemson a lead it would never relinquish and the Tigers went on to an 11-5 victory to claim its 16^th ACC championship while winning their 16^th game in a row.

After being away from Durham for a couple of years, it was nice for the ACC Baseball Tournament to return to the Bull City. I truly think it is a better host city than Charlotte or Greensboro, where no ACC teams are located.

In addition, the activities around the ballpark and the great atmosphere provide a draw for not only the three local teams (Duke, NC State and UNC) but also to the other fourteen schools that participate in baseball.

Hopefully, the ACC will form a long term agreement with the Bulls to host the tournament again.

Photos of the views of the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.