For the third straight season, North Carolina lost to the eventual NCAA champion in baseball.

This time it was Fresno State, the surprise of the entire tournament.

The message for UNC fans is that the Tar Heels got to the College World Series, for a third straight season, and, once again, created some lasting, heroic moments along the way.

Carolina fans must not think the program's achievements are preordained. The easiest thing in the world for fans is to assume success.

While the coaches and players work all year to compete at the highest level, the rest of us can sit in the stands or watch from home on television and think it's just going to happen automatically.

Still others may have the audacity to find fault with the Tar Heels' inability to win the national championship in three trips to Omaha.

Neither mentality is healthy.

"I'm realistic enough to know that I could coach here another 20 years and take another 10 teams there and still not win it," coach Mike Fox said. "Florida State has experienced that. (FSU coach) Mike Martin has gotten to the last game. He was the first one who called me after we lost in '06 and he was the first one who called me in '07. 'Been there, done that,' he said.

"He said, 'If you let this, it will eat you alive. Don't let that happen.' It was almost like, 'Don't do what I did.' It eats you up when you get that close."

For Carolina baseball fans, casual or dedicated, take care to heed similar advice: Do not take this program or this team for granted. And if the Tar Heels fail to make it back to the CWS next season, don't suddenly brush them aside as if the run is done.

Fox and his coaching staff - and his players - have worked as hard as a group of people can work to make all this happen. They've developed the mental process as much as the physical. The drama, the comebacks, the thrills this program has provided us in the last three seasons match anything any other team on campus has produced, and they will surpass most.

Senior Chad Flack alone should go down in the history of UNC athletics as one of the finest clutch performers to ever wear North Carolina on his uniform.

In the past three NCAA Tournaments, here is a sampling what he has done.

In game two of the super regional at Alabama two years ago, he hit a home run in the eighth and ninth innings (after Alabama had come back to take the lead in the top of the ninth with a homer of its own) to send Carolina to the first of these three trips to Omaha. Personally, I'm still not sure I've ever seen a better or more dramatic baseball game.

In 2007, in game three, the deciding game of the super regional against South Carolina, Flack hit the go-ahead home run that would propel UNC to its second straight trip to the CWS.

This year, he saved his heroics at bat (he had plenty in the field during the regionals) for the CWS. In the ninth inning of an elimination game against Fresno State on Saturday, Flack absolutely crushed a two-run homer to give UNC the lead.

The next night, the Bulldogs beat Carolina to end UNC's season. But Flack's game-winning blast and the tie-breaking grand slam two nights before by Tim Federowicz simply added to the enjoyment UNC fans should file in their vault of memories.

Back home in Chapel Hill, Boshamer Stadium is under complete renovation, and Carolina baseball is clearly at the high point of its existence.

The key is for all of us never to take it for granted, the way we often do with men's basketball. Just remember that success in athletics is fragile and can be fleeting.

No matter who the athletes are, no matter how hard a group works, things can change overnight.

That is simply the nature of sport. Just be grateful for what the Tar Heels have done, and, if you happen to see one of them, let them know how you feel.