The North Carolina Tarheels
Following his Tarheels’ 4-3 comeback win to beat Southern California and advance to North Carolina’s 13th College World Series appearance, UNC Coach Scott Forbes said the resilient effort shows his team’s makeup.
“We’re going to play 27 outs and we know how the process works to be a good team at this level,” Forbes said in Sunday post-game conference.
The Tarheels next game will be Friday at 6 p.m. (CST) against Auburn Super Regional Champion Ole Miss (42-20) at Schwab Stadium in Omaha, Neb.
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North Carolina has compiled an impressive 50-12-1 record this season and earned a No. 5 National Seed. The Tarheels lost the Atlantic Coast Conference title game to Georgia Tech 13-6. The result allowed Georgia Tech to get the No. 2 National Seed, but the Yellow Jackets were swatted away in the Atlanta Regional and Oklahoma advanced. The Sooners then downed No. 15 Kansas Monday afternoon to earn the final spot in the eight-team CWS field. Oklahoma lost 4-2 to Ole Miss in the CWS 2022 championship game. It was the Rebels’ first national title in five trips to Omaha.
They will make their sixth appearance, beginning Friday and North Carolina is first up. The winner will get the winner of Friday’s first game between un-seeded Troy against No. 16 West Virginia out of the Big 12.
Forbes said his team’s key moment this season, other than Sunday’s sterling comeback against USC, was its first ACC series with Virginia.
“We ended the East Carolina series with a tie and then we got smacked up by Virginia and lost that series. From then on, we found a way the rest of the way and we did not lose another series,” Forbes said.
Southern Cal won the first game of the Chapel Hill Super Regional last Friday, 9-5. UNC came back with a complete game two-hitter from Jason Decaro to win 4-0 and even the series. UNC then rallied from 3-1 down to get a walk-double from Owen Hull to beat the Trojans.
Hull had four doubles in Game 3. He leads UNC with .390 average and 81 RBIs. Mason Winslow has 10 homers and 57 RBIs while hitting .293. Cooper Nicholson has a team best 16 home runs but hits near the bottom at .262. Erik Paulson is another key bat at .296 with 11 homers and 54 RBIs. Jake Schafner is second on the team at .358.
Caden Glauber is the key pitcher for UNC. He rarely starts but is likely there at the end. He is 10-0 with a 2.20 earned run average and has thrown 81.2 innings. Decaro is 11-2 with 2.28 ERA and 87 innings pitched. Ryan Lynch (5-4, 4.22) and Walker McDuffie (8-3, 3.44) are the other key arms for the Tarheels.
