UNC playing to honor Fox's late mother

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – North Carolina's baseball players can think of no better way to honor coach Mike Fox's late mother than by earning another berth in the College World Series.

Their coach was home with his family in Raleigh during the Chapel Hill Regional. The Tar Heels swept the regional, and in their final game they wore pink socks — the color of breast-cancer awareness — in Barbara Fox's memory.

Catcher Jacob Stallings says beating Stanford in the super regionals and making it back to Omaha is something "we kind of owe to him."

Fox's mother died June 4 at the age of 76. She had been fighting cancer. The players attended her visitation on Monday and the coaching staff attended her funeral Tuesday.