By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — Scott Forbes played the long game with beautiful results for his top-ranked Tar Heels.
In Sunday’s loss to Oklahoma, the North Carolina coach saved his best two bullpen arms, knowing that Monday’s winner-take-all game would be the Sooners’ fifth of the Chapel Hill Regional and their pitching staff would be depleted.
It all came together on a sunny spring afternoon before 3,914 frenzied fans at Boshamer Stadium as UNC rolled to a 14–4 victory to win the regional for the second consecutive season.
“Plans don’t always work out, but, thankfully, the players make you look good as a coach,” Forbes said. “Didn’t surprise me, what you guys saw today — and ladies — this group, they bring it.”
Carolina (45–13) will host No. 21-ranked Arizona (42–18) in the best-of-three Super Regionals starting Friday. The Wildcats beat Cal Poly 14–0 Sunday night to win the Eugene Regional.
The timely hitting that was lacking in Sunday’s 9–5 loss to the Sooners returned with nine two-out runs to give UNC 22 for the regional as the Heels pounded out 17 hits.
Regional Most Outstanding Player Gavin Gallaher capped an outstanding weekend performance, going 4 for 6 with four RBI, homers in the eighth and ninth innings — the latter a three-run shot — and four runs to finish the regional 13 of 18 with three doubles, a triple, three home runs and 10 RBI.
No matter what was thrown at him, whether a fastball, slider or curveball, Gallaher hit it.
“I’m afraid to talk to Gavin. It’s like a no-hitter,” Forbes said of Gallaher, who is 17 of 34 with four homers and 14 RBI in eight career regional games over two seasons. “I’m just going to tell everybody else to touch him. That’s as good of a performance in a regional that I’ve seen.”
Freshman UNC right-handers Ryan Lynch (winner, 5–1) and Walker McDuffie (seventh save) combined for 13 strikeouts in making Forbes’ plan play out well.
“The tone is always set on the mound. They set it,” Forbes said.
Lynch, who pitched a scoreless Saturday inning against Oklahoma (38–22), was masterful, mixing a terrific slider with a fastball in the 90s.
Lynch showed his mettle as a starter with four strong innings in the ACC tournament championship game against Clemson, and did even better Monday. He gave up five hits, two runs and three walks while striking out six in throwing 82 pitches in a season-high 5+ innings.
McDuffie took over after Lynch issued a leadoff walk in the sixth inning and struck out seven in four innings to earn his seventh save. McDuffie got five called strikes and four swings and misses as he struck out the side swinging on three breaking balls in the fifth inning. After McDuffie’s fourth straight strikeout, Jason Walk drove a solo homer over the right-center field wall, but McDuffie rebounded with another strikeout on another breaking ball.
The Sooners got 10 of 17 lead-off batters on base entering Monday (including 6 of 8 in their win Sunday over UNC), but only did it four times Monday, and only one scored. It was the Sooners’ lowest scoring output of the regional.
“They’re both starters,” Forbes said of Lynch and McDuffie. “For us to have success this season, we needed them to pitch out of the bullpen and buy into that. They both obviously did, but we also lengthened them out.”
McDuffie was a nervous fan in the stands when UNC earned a dramatic 4–3 10-inning win over LSU on Monday night a year ago after losing 8–4 on that Sunday, but he showed no nerves on the mound.
“Pretty grateful for the opportunity, for sure,” McDuffie said, remembering that fan experience. “[I was] just wanting that to be me.”
Oklahoma’s pitching situation was so dire that junior right-hander Dylan Tate, who had pitched one inning in his only previous appearance all season, went 4+ innings as the third of seven Sooners pitchers. He was the most effective Oklahoma pitcher, striking out five batters.
Hunter Stokely had no RBI in nine NCAA tournament games coming into Monday, but drove in three Monday, including a two-run double. Jackson Van De Brake was 2 for 13 in the regional before going 3 for 6, including a two-run home run to left field in the eighth inning.
Gallaher, who was also a hero when UNC won last season’s Chapel Hill Regional, said that the experience of winning a winner-take-all game was big.
“You draw from that experience a little bit from last year,” Gallaher said. “You knew it was going to be a tough game. And when you jump out to a three-nothing lead early like that, when we know what we have in the pen and on the mound, it definitely takes a little bit of that weight off your shoulders.”
Oklahoma coach Skip Johnson had a message for Tar Heels fans: “You guys have a team here that can win the national championship, I can tell you that. They’re good. They’re really good. They can run, they can do a lot of things. You guys should be proud of that.”
He was understandably impressed with Gallaher.
“He was hot,” Johnson said. “He was one of those guys that was really hot. He covered change-ups, sliders, fastballs. He was covering a lot of pitches. And when a guy’s hot like that, we kind of try to pitch around him, we couldn’t pitch around him with some men on base. He’s a good player, really fun to watch.”
With two outs in the first inning, Luke Stevenson drew a walk and Gallaher reached on second baseman Kyle Branch’s throwing error. Stokely followed with an opposite-field sinking liner to left center for a two-run double, and scored on Alex Madera’s single to left field.
“Having a big inning offensively and then a quick inning defensively, it keeps the momentum in your dugout, keeps those guys on the other team on the field longer,” Gallaher said.
Drew Dickerson launched a Lynch offering 376 feet over the right-center field fence for a two-run homer, his third homer of the regional, in the second inning after Dasan Harris beat out an infield single with one out. That trimmed UNC’s lead to 3–2.
“I was just trying to cruise a little bit in the first couple of innings and wasn’t quite being as aggressive,” Lynch said. “So, after the home run in the second, I think I was just trying to get back to being really aggressive and just picture myself as a reliever and just chuck in as much as I could.”
Oklahoma’s overworked staff went through three pitchers in the four-run UNC third inning, including Tate.
One-out singles by Stevenson (who ended an 0-for-16 skid) and Gallaher ended the day for Oklahoma starter Reid Hensley (loser, 4–2; 2⅓ innings, 5 hits, 5 runs, 2 earned, 1 walk, 1 strikeout). Reliever Gavyn Jones (who threw two innings Saturday) walked Stokely to load the bases. UNC notched four runs on a Madera infield single, a Tyson Bass groundout, and singles from Sam Angelo and Carter French, ending Jones’ outing (⅓ of an inning, 3 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk) to bring on Tate.
Stokely made it 8–2 when Van De Brake, who led off the fourth inning with a single to right-center, hustled home on his sacrifice fly to short left field.
In the fifth inning, center fielder Kane Kepley and Van De Brake, the second baseman, collided, with Van De Brake’s leg hitting Kepley’s shoulder. The ball fell, and Easton Carmichael had a one-out double. Lynch struck out Sam Christiansen with a slider and induced an inning-ending fly out. Kepley and Van De Brake remained in the game.
Oklahoma got a second run off McDuffie with a Carmichael RBI single in the ninth inning.
NOTES — Joining Gallaher on the All-Regional team are Madera, Kepley, Angelo and Jake Knapp (see list below). … Carolina has only lost consecutive games once this season — 5–0 at Louisville on March 16 and 5–1 on March 19 against UConn. … Madera is 5 for 13 this season with the bases loaded. … Angelo was UNC’s starting DH for the fourth consecutive game. That’s the first time he’s started that many games in a row since starting nine in a row in a stretch that ended on April 1. … Harris struck out for the third out of the eighth inning when he got a pitch-clock violation with two strikes. … UNC has double-digit hits in three of its last five games. … Seth Trimble was at the game.
No. 1 UNC 14, Oklahoma 4
All-Regional team
First base: Sam Christiansen, Oklahoma
Second base: Cayden Brumbaugh, Nebraska
Third base: Gavin Gallaher, North Carolina (MVP)
Shortstop: Alex Madera, North Carolina
Catcher: Easton Carmichael, Oklahoma
Left field: Trey Gambill, Oklahoma
Center field: Kane Kepley, North Carolina
Right field: Dasan Harris, Oklahoma
Designated hitter: Sam Angelo, North Carolina
Pitcher: Jake Knapp, North Carolina
Pitcher: Malachi Witherspoon, Oklahoma
Chapel Hill Regional
At Boshamer Stadium
Friday’s results
No. 1 North Carolina 4, Holy Cross 0
No. 2 Oklahoma 7, No. 3 Nebraska 4
Saturday’s results
Nebraska 4, Holy Cross 1; Holy Cross eliminated
North Carolina 11, Oklahoma 5
Sunday’s results
Oklahoma 17, Nebraska 1; Nebraska eliminated
Oklahoma 9, North Carolina 5
Monday’s result
North Carolina 14, Oklahoma 4
UNC (45–13) advances to Super Regional against No. 21-ranked Arizona (42–18), which won the Eugene Regional on Sunday night with a 14–0 win over Cal Poly. Game 1 of the best-of-3 series is Friday at Boshamer Stadium.
Chapel Hill Super Regional
Top-ranked and No. 5-seed North Carolina (46–14) vs. No. 21-ranked Arizona (43–19)
Best-of-3 series
Boshamer Stadium
Game 1 Friday: North Carolina 18, Arizona 2
Game 2 Saturday: Arizona 10, North Carolina 8; series tied at 1
Game 3 Sunday: Arizona 4, North Carolina 3; Arizona wins series 2–1
Arizona meets No. 11-ranked and No. 13-seed Coastal Carolina (53–11), which finished off a sweep of the Auburn Super Regional, beating No. 9-ranked and No. 4-seed Auburn 7–6 in 10 innings on Friday and 4–1 on Saturday.
UNC scores
| Date(s) | Day/ month | Scores | Opponent (current rank) | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February | ||||
| 14–15 | Fri.-Sat. | W, 5–1; W, 8–3; W, 4–2 | vs. Texas Tech | 3–0 |
| 18 | Tuesday | W, 12–9 | vs. Kansas State | 4–0 |
| 22–24 | Sat.-Mon. | W, 2–0; W, 11–6; W, 6–4 | vs. East Carolina (DBAP, CH, G’ville) | 7–0 |
| 25 | Tuesday | W, 7–4 | vs. VCU | 8–0 |
| 26 | Wednesday | W, 13–4 | vs. N.C. A&T | 9–0 |
| 28 | Friday | W, 16–2 | vs. Stony Brook | 10–0 |
| March | ||||
| 1–2 | Sat.-Sun. | W, 6–1; W, 9–5 | vs. Stony Brook | 12–0 |
| 4 | Tuesday | W, 6–4 (11) | vs. No. 11 Coastal Carolina | 13–0 |
| 7–9 | Fri.-Sun. | L, 13–9; W, 11–1 (7); L, 7–0 | vs. Stanford | 14–2, 1–2 ACC |
| 11 | Tuesday | W, 7–3 (10) | at UNCW | 15–2 |
| 14, 16 | Fri., Sun. | L, 8–7; W, 6–4; L, 5–0 | at Louisville | 16–4, 2–4 |
| 19 | Wednesday | L, 5–1 | vs. UConn | 16–5 |
| 21–23 | Fri.-Sun. | W, 5–1; L, 3–2; W, 10–0 (7) | at Boston College | 18–6, 4–5 |
| 25 | Tuesday | W, 13–8 | vs. South Carolina in Charlotte | 19–7 |
| 28–30 | Fri.-Sun. | W, 2–0; W, 4–2; L, 4–2 | vs. Miami | 21–7, 6–6 |
| April | ||||
| 1 | Tuesday | W, 11–1 (7) | vs. Gardner-Webb | 22–7 |
| 3–5 | Thur.-Sat. | W, 4–3; L, 9–5; W, 8–7 (14) | vs. Duke | 24–8, 8–7 |
| 8 | Tuesday | W, 12–10 | at Elon | 25–8 |
| 11–13 | Fri.-Sun. | W, 11–1 (7); W, 17–1 (7); W, 3–2 | vs. Wake Forest | 28–8, 11–7 |
| 15 | Tuesday | W, 14–4 (8) | vs. Charlotte | 29–8 |
| 18–20 | Fri-Sun. | W, 9–6; L, 10–6: W, 7–5 | at Virginia Tech | 31–9, 13–8 |
| 25–27 | Fri.-Sun. | W, 15–5; L, 4–2; W, 6–0 | at Pittsburgh | 33–10, 15–9 |
| 29 | Tuesday | W, 13–4 | vs. George Mason | 34–10 |
| 30 | Wednesday | W, 14–3 | vs. Queens | 35–10 |
| May | ||||
| 6 | Tuesday | W, 10–1 | vs. Campbell | 36–10 |
| 8–9 | Thurs.-Fri. | W, 8–1; L, 8–5 | vs. N.C. State | 37–11, 16–10 |
| 15–17 | Thurs.-Sat. | W, 8–3; W, 11–1 (7); L, 5–4 | at No. 7 Florida State | 39–12, 18–11 |
| ACC tournament | Durham | |||
| 23 | Friday | Quarterfinal: W, 7–3 | Boston College | 40–12 |
| 24 | Saturday | Semifinal: W, 7–5 | No. 7 Florida State | 41–12 |
| 25 | Sunday | Final: W, 14–4 | No. 14 Clemson | 42–12 |
| Chapel Hill Regional | ||||
| 30 | Friday | W, 4–0 | Holy Cross | 43–12 |
| 31 | Saturday | W, 11–5 | Oklahoma | 44–12 |
| June | ||||
| 1 | Sunday | L, 9–5 | Oklahoma | 44–13 |
| 2 | Monday | W, 14–4 | Oklahoma | 45–13 |
| Chapel Hill Super Regional | Best-of-3 series | |||
| 6 | Friday | W, 18–2 | No. 21 Arizona | 46–13 |
| 7 | Saturday | L, 10–8 | No. 21 Arizona | 46–14 |
| 8 | Sunday | L, 4–3 | No. 21 Arizona | 46–15 |
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
tarheeltribune.com 