UNC baseball score: the Tar Heels beat West Virginia 5-2 on Sunday in Omaha and moved to 2-0 in the College World Series bracket. That puts North Carolina one win from the championship series and leaves it needing only one more result to avoid an elimination-game path.
Gallaher Breaks The Tie
Gavin Gallaher ended a 2-2 game with a bases-clearing triple, the swing that pushed UNC ahead for good. Owen Hull added an insurance run in the seventh inning, and that gave the Tar Heels enough separation to finish off their second straight win in Omaha.
The response came after Friday’s 6-2 win over Ole Miss, a game UNC erased after falling behind 1-0 and 2-1. Jason DeCaro and Caden Glauber combined in that opener to set up the 2-0 start, and Sunday extended it to the short list of teams still unbeaten in the eight-team bracket.
Forbes Keeps The Focus Narrow
Scott Forbes tried to cut off the championship-series talk on Tuesday. “That's exactly what we're not saying,” he said. He added, “Obviously, a lot of people are going to say that. I just told them I've been in that position in 2006, and I learned a lot from it. We're not going to count out and we're not going to listen to the noise. We're just going to focus on what we've been doing all year.”
Forbes also said, “I told our guys we're going to play until they tell us to stop,” which matches the way UNC has handled the bracket so far. The Tar Heels already survived a Super Regional fight against USC after losing the opener and winning Game 3 with a ninth-inning rally, and they entered Omaha at 52-12-1 with the same pressure: keep winning and stay out of the elimination side.
West Virginia At 2 P.M.
UNC will play West Virginia again Wednesday at 2 p.m., and the bracket setup is simple from there. Whoever the opponent is will need two wins to advance, while a loss would send UNC into a quick turnaround elimination game and bracket final on Thursday.
That path has not been available to UNC since 2007, when it last reached the College World Series championship series and lost to Oregon State. Forbes was the pitching coach on the 2006 UNC team that reached the final, and he said the staff is still deciding how to handle Wednesday’s game, including Folger Boaz and the possibility of using Caden Glauber in a way that could limit him later in the tournament if he reaches 100 pitches.
