In addition to starting this season after losing multiple players to the major-league draft and graduation in the last two years, the Tar Heels have had the added complication of playing their "home" games at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, because Boshamer Stadium on the UNC campus is undergoing renovation.

Still, at 38-8, Carolina has the most wins of any team in college baseball.

The Tar Heels are off this week for exams, but they entered this period in a dramatic and an impressive fashion. UNC took two out of three games from Florida State this past weekend, defeating the Seminoles 2-1 in 10 innings on Sunday and 11-4 in Friday's opening game. This was not just any series.

Florida State (35-7) entered the weekend ranked No. 2 in one national poll, No. 3 in another. UNC was ranked second in the poll in which the Seminoles are No. 3, and the Tar Heels were third in the poll that ranked Florida State second.

These are two of the top teams in the country, and defeating the Seminoles in two of the three strengthens Carolina's claim that it is here to stay as one of the game's elite programs.

"A lot of the upperclassmen instill that resiliency in the team," sophomore outfielder Tim Fedroff said. "They know from experience the game is never really over. Being behind can't take us out of our game."

There is little doubt about that statement.

UNC played in both of the previous two years for the national championship in the final games of the College World Series. Oregon State defeated the Tar Heels both times, but those losses cannot diminish what Fox and all those involved have done with Carolina baseball.

Time and again, this team has come from behind to win games when the average fan probably thought all hope was lost. It happened at Alabama two years ago in the super regional of the NCAA Tournament, and it happened last year at Boshamer in the tournament's regional and super regional.

The Tar Heels did it again this past weekend against an outstanding Florida State team. Friday, Carolina went six innings without a hit and struggled to put the ball into play. Then with FSU leading 3-0 and seemingly in control of the game, UNC put on a display of hitting and resiliency that can be described as nothing short of remarkable.

UNC scored 11 runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, 10 with two outs. Scoring with two outs harkens back to the postseason a year ago when two outs got to be nothing but a jump-start for a determined bunch of Tar Heels.

This time, though, even the players were a little astounded by what they did.

"I've never seen anything like that," said Fedroff, who nearly hit a home run in the eighth with a ball that bounced off the left-center wall for a double. He drove in first baseman Dustin Ackley from second with that double.

"It just seemed like we were catching breaks," Fedroff said. "Everyone was hitting the ball good and finding holes. That is the way baseball is. Fortunately, we were on the good side of that eighth inning."

Fox always seems to be calm about what is going on, at least outwardly. Who knows what must be happening with his nerve endings in these wild comebacks?

"We're going to keep playing," Fox said. "That is why this is such a great game. It can change on a dime. The best thing about baseball is you have to keep playing and anything can happen. You don't expect something like that to happen, but it does. We were fortunate because we got a lot of that with two outs, but we'll take it."

They took it again on Sunday in a tight, hard-fought game very unlike Friday's offensive explosion. It required timely hitting and it required what may be the best bullpen in college baseball to come through again. The defense did its job as well, turning a season-high four double plays.

Winning has to be tops on the wish list for Fox, his coaches and his players, but building a strong following is not far behind. They have done well in that area, too.

Fans packed Boshamer for the postseason a year ago, and this weekend's series in Cary proved that was no one-time reaction.

The ballpark in Cary, which holds more than 4,000 people, including standing room and the grassy banks, was packed all weekend with excited, eager Tar Heel fans.

Fox, his coaches and the players who have signed on with them have done much more than succeed on the field. They have made Carolina baseball a springtime phenomenon.