University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: AINSLEY E. FAUTH
Lucas: Decisive
June 2, 2025 | Baseball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Carolina continued a season-long trend by winning the toughest games in the best ways.
By Adam Lucas
To give you some perspective on the length of a college baseball season, there was a time this season when people doubted Carolina's toughness.
That was back in mid-March, when the Heels split the first two games with Stanford…then lost the third. The next weekend, they split the first two games at Louisville…then lost the third.
The very next weekend, they split the first two games at Boston College, losing a difficult 3-2 game on Saturday. A team meeting that evening resulted in a run rule victory the next day. They then proceeded to win every other series deciding game they've played this season. The string started with a 14-inning win over Duke, then quieted Virginia Tech, then included a shutout of Pitt…and then there was the Chapel Hill Regional.
The event ostensibly also featured Nebraska and Holy Cross but essentially turned into a three-game series between Carolina and Oklahoma. The Heels won 11-5 on Saturday and then lost 9-5 on Sunday.
Which is to say, obviously, that they had the Sooners right where they wanted them--in a decisive third game on Monday afternoon.
"This is just a series," Scott Forbes told his team. "Find a way to win the series."
That way they found was continuing to do things the exact same way they have for the last two months. Never too high. Never too low. Just playing, getting a little bit better every day, steadily progressing from 2-4 in the ACC to number one in the country in the most recent poll.
That word—steady—is important. This has been a weekend where we have seen college coaches and players exhibit some questionable behavior. That doesn't work at Carolina.
Even Monday, after earning a strikeout of Luke Stevenson, an Oklahoma pitcher stared down the Tar Heel catcher and then was admonished by home plate umpire Brian deBrauwere.
The score at the time of that outburst? The Sooners were in the process of getting their laundry thoroughly cleaned by the Tar Heels, as Carolina led 8-2.
Everyone has to play the game their own way. That works for some teams—after all, Tennessee won the national title last year. But the Carolina style seems very familiar and very…Carolina.
At that same time his team was up 8-2, what was Forbes telling the Heels in the dugout? "Don't stop," he reminded them as they prepared for the top of the fifth. "Keep playing."
And at 14-3 in the top of the ninth, three outs away from the program's 11th super-regional in the last 19 NCAA Tournaments?
"Lock in," he said.
That's it. No big histrionics. A simple reminder that the job wasn't done.
His players have absorbed the message.
"Baseball is a funny game," said regional Most Outstanding Player Gavin Gallaher, who is currently hotter than Danny Green on a half-court heat check (and check Rapid Reactions for more info on a small Gallaher play that might be almost as impressive as his hitting). "The second you lose that humility is the second it catches up to you."
There are some players and coaches in the NCAA Tournament who think humility is that factor in the North Carolina summers that makes the heat so oppressive.
And then we have the Tar Heels, who are the exact opposite.
At 13-0 and already with a Friday win to his credit, Jake Knapp could have been excused if he preferred to sit on the bench and think about his very high level of awesomeness. Instead, in the sixth inning he trotted down to the Tar Heel bullpen. He'd already negotiated with the coaching staff that he could be available for a three-out save if needed ("Or maybe four outs," Knapp said after they agreed on three), and he wanted to be ready.
And if the ACC Pitcher of the Year is that hungry for wins, how could anyone else on the roster possibly feel any differently?
That kind of mentality from a veteran leader is why freshmen Ryan Lynch and Walker McDuffie, who would be weekend starters at many other schools, were content to come out of the bullpen for most of the year—because that was what best enabled Carolina to win games. Now, in the most important game of the year, it was Lynch who started and McDuffie who closed, both nearly untouchable by the powerful Sooners.
"They're both starters," Forbes said. "It's just that for us to have success this season we needed them to pitch out of the bullpen and buy into that. And they both obviously did."
It's really, really fun to win. It's even more fun to win this way.
There are absolutely coaches who played their last game this season and were thrilled to finally get away from their players. Contrast that with the Tar Heels. In the immediate aftermath of Monday's win, assistant coach Scott Jackson looked at Forbes and said, "We get another week with our guys!"
That was part of taking a couple minutes to enjoy the win before turning all attention to super-regional opponent Arizona. The Wildcats are hot and playing with the freedom of no expectations. It will almost certainly be close, it will be scrappy, and it will be difficult.
Forbes just smiled.
"These guys know," he said. "The harder you have to work for it, the more gratifying it is."
To give you some perspective on the length of a college baseball season, there was a time this season when people doubted Carolina's toughness.
That was back in mid-March, when the Heels split the first two games with Stanford…then lost the third. The next weekend, they split the first two games at Louisville…then lost the third.
The very next weekend, they split the first two games at Boston College, losing a difficult 3-2 game on Saturday. A team meeting that evening resulted in a run rule victory the next day. They then proceeded to win every other series deciding game they've played this season. The string started with a 14-inning win over Duke, then quieted Virginia Tech, then included a shutout of Pitt…and then there was the Chapel Hill Regional.
The event ostensibly also featured Nebraska and Holy Cross but essentially turned into a three-game series between Carolina and Oklahoma. The Heels won 11-5 on Saturday and then lost 9-5 on Sunday.
Which is to say, obviously, that they had the Sooners right where they wanted them--in a decisive third game on Monday afternoon.
"This is just a series," Scott Forbes told his team. "Find a way to win the series."
That way they found was continuing to do things the exact same way they have for the last two months. Never too high. Never too low. Just playing, getting a little bit better every day, steadily progressing from 2-4 in the ACC to number one in the country in the most recent poll.
That word—steady—is important. This has been a weekend where we have seen college coaches and players exhibit some questionable behavior. That doesn't work at Carolina.
Even Monday, after earning a strikeout of Luke Stevenson, an Oklahoma pitcher stared down the Tar Heel catcher and then was admonished by home plate umpire Brian deBrauwere.
The score at the time of that outburst? The Sooners were in the process of getting their laundry thoroughly cleaned by the Tar Heels, as Carolina led 8-2.
Everyone has to play the game their own way. That works for some teams—after all, Tennessee won the national title last year. But the Carolina style seems very familiar and very…Carolina.
At that same time his team was up 8-2, what was Forbes telling the Heels in the dugout? "Don't stop," he reminded them as they prepared for the top of the fifth. "Keep playing."
And at 14-3 in the top of the ninth, three outs away from the program's 11th super-regional in the last 19 NCAA Tournaments?
"Lock in," he said.
That's it. No big histrionics. A simple reminder that the job wasn't done.
His players have absorbed the message.
"Baseball is a funny game," said regional Most Outstanding Player Gavin Gallaher, who is currently hotter than Danny Green on a half-court heat check (and check Rapid Reactions for more info on a small Gallaher play that might be almost as impressive as his hitting). "The second you lose that humility is the second it catches up to you."
There are some players and coaches in the NCAA Tournament who think humility is that factor in the North Carolina summers that makes the heat so oppressive.
And then we have the Tar Heels, who are the exact opposite.
At 13-0 and already with a Friday win to his credit, Jake Knapp could have been excused if he preferred to sit on the bench and think about his very high level of awesomeness. Instead, in the sixth inning he trotted down to the Tar Heel bullpen. He'd already negotiated with the coaching staff that he could be available for a three-out save if needed ("Or maybe four outs," Knapp said after they agreed on three), and he wanted to be ready.
And if the ACC Pitcher of the Year is that hungry for wins, how could anyone else on the roster possibly feel any differently?
That kind of mentality from a veteran leader is why freshmen Ryan Lynch and Walker McDuffie, who would be weekend starters at many other schools, were content to come out of the bullpen for most of the year—because that was what best enabled Carolina to win games. Now, in the most important game of the year, it was Lynch who started and McDuffie who closed, both nearly untouchable by the powerful Sooners.
"They're both starters," Forbes said. "It's just that for us to have success this season we needed them to pitch out of the bullpen and buy into that. And they both obviously did."
It's really, really fun to win. It's even more fun to win this way.
There are absolutely coaches who played their last game this season and were thrilled to finally get away from their players. Contrast that with the Tar Heels. In the immediate aftermath of Monday's win, assistant coach Scott Jackson looked at Forbes and said, "We get another week with our guys!"
That was part of taking a couple minutes to enjoy the win before turning all attention to super-regional opponent Arizona. The Wildcats are hot and playing with the freedom of no expectations. It will almost certainly be close, it will be scrappy, and it will be difficult.
Forbes just smiled.
"These guys know," he said. "The harder you have to work for it, the more gratifying it is."
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