By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — After pitching seven two-hit shutout innings last weekend in No. 4 North Carolina’s NCAA tournament opener, sophomore right-hander Ryan Lynch will also start Game 1 of this weekend’s Chapel Hill Super Regional.
Lynch (5-4, 4.07 ERA) will oppose USC ace junior left-hander Mason Edwards (8-0, 1.85 ERA), the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year, in the 3 p.m. game Friday at Boshamer Stadium on ESPN2.
Coach Scott Forbes said the Tar Heels will follow with Jason DeCaro (10-2, 2.54 ERA) in Game 2 on Saturday. He’ll oppose the Trojans’ sophomore right-hander Grant Govel (10-2, 2.93). In Sunday’s Game 3, if needed, UNC’s Folger Boaz (3-3, 7.03 ERA) would likely oppose Diego Velazquez (5-1, 4.26 ERA).
“Really just excited for our players,” Forbes said Thursday at a Boshamer Stadium press conference. “It’s hard to play in a Super Regional. Don’t take that for granted. I definitely take it in a little bit more the older I get. Most importantly, it’s exciting for our players who put in all the work to get us to the super regional.”
Forbes also welcomed USC (47-16) to Chapel Hill and praised the Trojans, who arrive with one of the nation’s top pitching staffs and a headliner in Edwards, who has emerged as one of college baseball’s toughest pitchers.
North Carolina (48-11-1), though, is not planning to make the weekend about Edwards.
“We ain’t going to make it about Mason Edwards, we’re going to make it about us,” Forbes said. “We’re going to get in the box, we’re going to strap it on, and we’re going to compete. That’s got to be number one.”
Forbes said the Tar Heels will have a scouting plan, but not one so cluttered that it paralyzes hitters at the plate.
“You do have to have an approach, you have to have an idea of what you’re trying to do,” he said. “But if you have a million things going through your head as a hitter, you’re already defeated.
“So, I tell my guys, this time of year, you’ve faced everything. This league has prepared you for everything. We’ve faced lefties, righties, velocity, ride, sink, so we just try not to get too caught up in the other guy.”
That confidence is rooted partly in how North Carolina’s lineup has evolved over the last few weeks, and partly in how dangerous it can be when one of its hottest bats, Gavin Gallaher, is in the middle of it.
“It’s been great,” Gallaher said. “Everybody worked so hard, and at the beginning of the season maybe there were a bunch of guys that didn’t have their best stuff, but everybody just shows up every day, everybody’s consistent and they put in the work. It’s a lot of stuff behind the scenes that doesn’t really get seen, but you can tell that when guys get in the box.”
North Carolina has seen enough postseason baseball over the past three years to understand that momentum is useful only until the next pitch. The Tar Heels rolled to an 18–2 win in Game 1 last season against Arizona, then lost the next two games and watched their season end one win short of Omaha.
Forbes said the program has learned from those moments without dwelling on them.
“We talk about being process-oriented, we talk about today, we talk about learning from the past, making every day your masterpiece,” Forbes said. “So we don’t really dwell on it at all. We just learn from it and go on.”
Gallaher echoed that same point when asked what the Tar Heels took from last season’s super regional disappointment.
“Each day is a new day,” he said. “That’s what we talk about, the process, a lot. It doesn’t matter what you did in Game 1; the job’s not finished until it’s finished. You can win Game 1, 1-0. You can win Game 1, 18-2. But you’ve got to show up the next day ready to play just as much as you were the first day.”
DeCaro said the same principle applies to North Carolina’s pitching staff. The Tar Heels feel they have done the hard work to put themselves in favorable counts. Now the challenge is finishing them.
“As a pitching staff as a whole, we do a really good job of getting ahead,” DeCaro said. “Sometimes you might get beat in those two-strike counts, and it was laid out as, you did the hard part already, you got two strikes, so don’t make it hard on yourself. Just execute a pitch, and you’ll get the results that you want. Really, just hammering that home, and no matter who the opponent is, we’ll find success if we can execute that.”
DeCaro said there is value in watching Lynch work through USC’s lineup Friday, even if the two right-handers rely on different styles.
“We are two very different pitchers,” DeCaro said, “but I think it’s nice to see the lineup once for a full day before. At the end of the day, it’s just him going out there and executing what he’s good at, and me going out there and executing what I’m capable of.”
Forbes said the Tar Heels’ belief in their arms is part of what makes this group dangerous in a best-of-three setting.
“You just got to keep battling,” Forbes said of Edwards. “You’ve got to have our guy, who I think is a stud as well. You’ve got to make plays defensively, but I’ll put my chips on our guys.”
North Carolina has leaned all season on a veteran core that has now pushed the program to three consecutive Super Regionals, an accomplishment Forbes said reflects the standards inside the clubhouse more than any number beside the team’s name. National seeds and rankings mean little to him in a sport that punishes any lapse in attention.
“These guys know you have to play,” said Forbes, whose team is the No. 5 overall seed. “We talk about it all the time. Baseball is what makes baseball so awesome. If that guy, no matter what school it is, trots out there and gets on that dirt and he’s on, you’re going to be in a battle.”
That perspective is part of why Forbes said he appreciates this run as much for what it says about the program as for the chance it gives North Carolina this weekend.
“I do appreciate that, but I appreciate it most because the players made the decision to do that, to hold those standards high and to keep our culture good,” Forbes said. “That’s why we’re so good this year, because these guys learned from guys two years ago when they were freshmen, and they’ve carried that on.”
Now the Tar Heels get another June weekend at Boshamer Stadium, with the weather expected to be in the mid-90s and Omaha once again within reach.
“We have a saying around here, it’s going to be hot in June, it’s going to be hot in Omaha, and we love it,” Forbes said. “I was hoping it was going to be hot. I do not like baseball in cold weather. This is what baseball’s about. You want it to be hot, and we’re in that postseason time.”
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Chapel Hill Super Regional
No. 4-ranked and No. 5-seed North Carolina (48–11–1) vs. Southern Cal (47–16)
Best-of-3 series
Boshamer Stadium
Game 1: USC’s Mason Edwards (8-0, 1.85 ERA) vs. UNC’s Ryan Lynch (5-4, 3.07 ERA), Friday, 3 p.m., ESPN2
Game 2: USC’s Grant Govel (10-2, 2.93) vs. Jason DeCaro (10-2, 2.54), Saturday, 2 p.m., ESPN
Game 3: Sunday (if needed), TBD
The Chapel Hill Super Regional winner plays its opener in the College World Series against the winner of the Auburn Super Regional between No. 18 Ole Miss (39–21) and No. 5 Auburn (42–20). Game 1 is at 8 p.m. Friday (ESPN2), Game 2 at 5 p.m. Saturday (ESPN) and Game 3 is Sunday, if needed.
NCAA tournament bracket
| Date(s) | Day/ month | Times/ scores | Opponent (current rank) | Record/ TV * |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February | ||||
| 13–14 | Fri., Sat. | W, 9–4; W, 12–2 (7); W, 4–3 (11) | vs. Indiana | 3–0 |
| 17 | Tuesday | W, 10–0 (7) | vs. Richmond | 4–0 |
| 18 | Wednesday | W, 5–3 | vs. Longwood | 5–0 |
| 20–22 | Fri.-Sun | W, 10–0 (8); L, 10–3; T, 3–3 | vs. East Carolina | 6–1–1 |
| 24 | Tuesday | W, 9–1 | vs. N.C. A&T | 7–1–1 |
| 25 | Wednesday | W, 13–3 (7) | vs. VCU | 8–1–1 |
| 27–28 | Fri., Sat. | W, 16–3 (7); W, 12–2 (7) | vs. Le Moyne | 10–1–1 |
| March | ||||
| 1 | Sunday | W, 21–1 (7) | vs. Le Moyne | 11–1–1 |
| 3 | Tuesday | W, 5–1 | vs. Elon | 12–1–1 |
| 6–7 | Fri., Sat | L, 13–3 (7); L, 9–2; W, 8–7 (12) | vs. Virginia | 13–3–1, 1–2 ACC |
| 10 | Tuesday | W, 13–3 (7) | vs. Bucknell | 14–3–1 |
| 13–15 | Fri.-Sun. | W, 8–1; W, 6–2; W, 10–2 | at California | 17–3–1, 4–2 |
| 18 | Wednesday | W, 8–2 | vs. UNCG | 18–3–1 |
| 20–22 | Fri.–Sun. | W, 11–1 (8); L, 2–0; W, 7–6 | vs. Louisville | 20–4–1, 6–3 |
| 24 | Tuesday | W, 9–1 | vs. South Carolina in Charlotte | 21–4–1 |
| 28, 29 | Sat., Sun | W, 6–5; W, 13–7; W, 15–10 | at Notre Dame | 24–4–1, 9–3 |
| 31 | Tuesday | W, 5–4 (14) | vs. Campbell | 25–4–1 |
| April | ||||
| 2–4 | Thur.-Sat. | L, 6–1; W, 5–2; W, 8–7 | vs. Boston College | 27–5–1, 11–4 |
| 7 | Tuesday | W, 8–4 | vs. Charlotte | 28–5–1 |
| 10–12 | Fri.–Sun. | L, 9–5; W, 6–4 (14); W, 12–5 | at Clemson | 30–6–1, 13–5 |
| 14 | Tuesday | W, 14–5 | vs. UNCW | 31–6–1 |
| 17–19 | Fri.-Sun. | W, 5–2; W, 14–4 (8); L, 5–2 | vs. No. 2 Georgia Tech | 33–7–1, 15–6 |
| 21 | Tuesday | W, 9–2 | vs. High Point | 34–7–1 |
| 23–25 | Thur.–Sat. | W, 3–1; L, 3–1; W, 22–5 (7) | at Duke | 36–8–1, 17–7 |
| 28 | Tuesday | L, 12–2 | vs. Coastal Carolina | 36–9–1 |
| May | ||||
| 3 | Sunday | W, 13–0 (7) (non-conference game) | vs. Duke | 37–9–1 |
| 8–10 | Fri.-Sun. | W, 4–1; W, 12–2 (8); W, 7–3 | vs. Pittsburgh | 40–9–1, 20–7 |
| 12 | Tuesday | W, 13–7 | at UNCW | 41–9–1 |
| 14–16 | Thur.-Sat. | W, 9–4; W, 17–7 (8); L, 7–2 | at N.C. State | 43–10–1, 22–8 |
| ACC tournament | Charlotte | |||
| 22 | Friday | W, 10–4 | Quarterfinal vs. Virginia Tech | 44–10–1 |
| 23 | Saturday | W, 13–5 | Semifinal vs. Pittsburgh | 45–10–1 |
| 24 | Sunday | L, 13–6 | Championship vs. No. 2 Ga. Tech | 45–11–1 |
| NCAA tournament | ||||
| Chapel Hill Regional | ||||
| 29 | Friday | W, 8–0 | VCU | 46–11–1 |
| 30 | Saturday | W, 7–5 | East Carolina | 47–11–1 |
| 31 | Sunday | W, 9–3 | East Carolina | 48–11–1 |
| June | ||||
| Chapel Hill Super Regionals | ||||
| 5 | Friday | 3 p.m. | Southern Cal | ESPN2 |
| 6 | Saturday | 2 p.m. | Southern Cal | ESPN |
| 7 | Sunday | TBD (if needed) | Southern Cal | TBD |
| 12–22 | Fri.-Mon | College World Series | Omaha, Neb. | TBA |
Photo by Daniel Walker
