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 Ragsdale alumnus Chase Jones is the bullpen catcher for the North Carolina baseball team. He gives News & Record readers an inside view of the College World Series.

OMAHA, Neb. — UNC in the College World Series five of the past six years? I’ll take it.

I can proudly state, as a senior and recent UNC graduate that the Tar Heels are back in the “Promised Land” of collegiate baseball: Omaha, Neb.

Sadly, this is my fifth and final year (I successfully exhausted all forms of eligibility, for those of you checking at home), but I could not be more excited about this year’s team and the possibility of winning a national championship for UNC.

After missing last year’s CWS, I can state that this year’s ride has had its major ups and downs, unlike any team I have been a part of. Yet, in the back of all of our minds, something is different; we are not the most talented team in UNC history, nor the quickest or the best offensively. Nobody is picking us to win this thing.

But there is something there, something that none of us can quite explain.

Maybe it was the low of being swept by our rival, N.C. State, followed by the high of sweeping the No. 1 team in the nation, UVa (apologies Wahoo fans).

Maybe it was our team coming together to raise more than $17,000 to fight childhood cancer in our annual “UNC BaseBald for the Cure” event, making an impact off the baseball diamond.

Maybe it was witnessing the pain of our head coach, Mike Fox, losing his mother to a long bought with cancer, followed by the loss of associate head coach Scott Forbes’ father-in-law within a three-day span, all the while going undefeated in the NCAA tournament.

Whatever it is, the intangibles are there. The 2011 season has proved conclusively what Coach Fox has often said about the sum being greater than the parts.

Whatever it is, I’ll take it.

On the flight into Omaha, it was thrilling to watch the faces of our underclassmen who have never experienced the joys of playing in front of tens of thousands and the taste of a famed Zesto’s milkshake after a CWS win. Even more thrilling is the quiet determination of our upperclassmen, hungry for the first national championship for UNC baseball.

So, when you watch us today, you may not see the big names of the past or even the most talented group of guys out of the all the teams competing. But I can guarantee you’ll see the most weathered yet spirited team on the field.

And as far as the outcome goes, I hope you’re pulling for us.

I’ll take it.