By R.L. Bynum
OMAHA, Neb. — Gavin Gallaher picked an excellent time to break through with his first College World Series hit.
The junior second baseman was 0-for-15 when he took a first-pitch strike from Ole Miss left-handed reliever Walker Hooks with two outs in the seventh inning. After a discussion with coach Scott Forbes between pitches, he laced a single up the middle for the go-ahead run.
UNC rolled from there, thanks to a three-run, two-out eighth-inning Colin Hynek home run as the No. 4 Tar Heels knocked off No. 23 Ole Miss 6–2 in their College World Series opener at Charles Schwab Field Omaha.
“I don’t think it’s a magic touch. It’s luck,” Forbes said of his conversation with Gallaher. “I just try to slow the game down sometimes in a certain situation. He’s a veteran. Sometimes I don’t want to say anything to him because he’s so good in those big moments. It might be my second trip ever with him.”
Freshman right-hander Caden Glauber (11–0) struck out two in 2⅓ innings to cap another outstanding UNC pitching effort that ace Jason DeCaro started. Forbes said the plan came together exactly the way UNC hoped.
“In a perfect world, we’re going DeCaro and Globe, and it worked out for us,” Forbes said. “You have to do special things to win and get this far already. But you have to do even more special things to win out here.”
The Tar Heels (51–12–1) will play a winners bracket game at 7:09 Sunday night against No. 9 West Virginia (48–16), which beat Troy 7–5 on Friday afternoon. Ole Miss (41–22) faces Troy in an elimination game at 2:09 Sunday.
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Both right-handed starters were masterful in giving up only one run, but neither DeCaro nor Ole Miss’s Taylor Rabe figured in the decision.
UNC had a tough time making contact against fireballing Rabe, whose fastball was consistently in the mid-to-upper 90s, until Owen Hull’s opposite-field homer to lead off the seventh inning tied it. Rabe had retired the leadoff batter in each of the first five innings.
“Pitching duel, good night, their guy was on, our guy was on,” Forbes said. “It was hard to do anything offensively for both teams. Our guys kept hanging around, piecing it together. Got a little bit better as we went along. Had some base runners, just couldn’t get the big hit.”
Hull said UNC never lost confidence, even as Rabe piled up strikeouts and empty swings early.
“First of all, that pitcher was really good. The whole Ole Miss team is very good,” Hull said. “We came in with a game plan, and we tried to execute every at-bat.”
DeCaro consistently fooled the Rebels, who managed a run in the third inning. He gave up two runs, five hits and three walks with nine strikeouts, tying his career high, over 106 pitches in 6⅔ innings.
“Just trying to slow myself down a little bit,” DeCaro said. “We talked earlier in the week about how we’re taking it one pitch at a time. I feel like I did a pretty good job with that.”
The issues with runners in scoring position that UNC couldn’t overcome last weekend lingered early. The Tar Heels got runners at the corners with two outs in the second inning and runners on first and second with two outs in the fourth inning, but came up empty.
Ole Miss broke through when Brayden Randle’s flare down the left-field line fell for a leadoff double in the third inning, when Tyler Howe appeared to momentarily lose sight of the ball and couldn’t catch up to it. Dom Decker followed with an RBI double to left-center field.
Forbes did not fault Howe for the difficult play and liked the freshman’s response later in the game in snagging a fly ball at the warning track.
“That sun is tough. Shadows are tough,” Forbes said. “But that’s why he’s been able to play every day as a freshman. He’s steady. He’s an old-school baseball player. He can play all over the field. He’s not intimidated.”
DeCaro stranded two runners in both the fifth and sixth innings, escaping runners at the corners in the latter by striking out Austin Fawley swinging with his 93rd pitch.
Forbes thought DeCaro was sharp from the outset.
“I thought he was in complete control,” Forbes said. “He had four pitches. I felt like from the first pitch he threw until we took him out, he was in complete control.”
DeCaro yelled out, “Let’s go,” as he came off the mound, and Hull responded with his big blast, a 394-foot shot. Rabe exited two batters later after throwing 108 pitches, his second-highest total this season, giving up two hits and four walks while striking out seven.
“I was sitting on a heater,” Hull said. “I got one up in the zone, so I put a good swing on it.”
Hull said UNC’s hitters believed that if they kept extending at-bats, the breakthrough would come.
“One-hundred percent, yeah, we’ve got a really special offense, and we’re going to keep being gritty,” Hull said. “We got his pitch count up pretty high. That’s what our goal was. He’s a really good pitcher. We knew we would get to him eventually.”
Glauber relieved DeCaro after Decker’s two-out double in the seventh inning. His first batter, Judd Utermark, lined an RBI single to left field, but Glauber steadied himself immediately and kept the deficit at one.
“And I also thought that Caden Glauber, who is supposed to be at his high school graduation, was pretty dang good as well,” Forbes said. “Obviously, he gave up the 3-0 hit, but he came right back and struck the next guy out,” said Forbes of Glauber.
Hynek made sure the freshman knew the moment had not grown too big.
“Coming off the mound, I just told [Glauber] simply, good job, did a good job of bouncing back, getting the next guy and getting us in the dugout,” Hynek said. “Going into the next inning, it was just, go out there and be yourself. He’s one of the best pitchers in the country, so there’s no reason to not act like it for him.”
Before Gallaher’s big hit in the seventh inning, Howe and Hynek drew walks to lead off the inning. Carter French advanced both on a perfect bunt before Jake Schaffner’s sacrifice fly tied it, and Gallaher’s hit gave UNC the lead.
UNC’s ability to manufacture the tying and go-ahead runs fit the formula Forbes believes is required in Omaha.
“I’ve told our team from the get-go, it’s all about pitching and defending and being fundamentally sound and being able to manufacture a run,” Forbes said. “Especially if you’re fortunate to get here, the ballpark’s going to play a little bit bigger.”
Hynek’s eighth-inning blast came after Cooper Nicholson got hit by a pitch and Howe doubled. During an Ole Miss visit to the mound, Hynek settled on the pitch he wanted.
“Coach [Jesse Wierzbicki] was just letting me know from the dugout, obviously we’ve got our scouting reports,” Hynek said. “The guy has a change-up that he likes to throw. It’s a pretty good pitch. So, I was trying to see him up. And when I saw the change-up start up, I got a swing off.”
The ball carried into the seats in right field, giving UNC a four-run cushion and setting off a celebration in the Tar Heels’ dugout.
“Seeing it go over is a pretty cool feeling to homer here,” Hynek said. “I just stuck to my plan.”
Forbes credited Hull’s game-tying shot and Hynek’s insurance blast for changing the mood of the night.
“I thought Owen Hull swinging the bat let the air out a little bit,” Forbes said. “It’s hard to hit a home run here. But to do that opposite field tells you how talented he is. And then Colin Hynek with the big blow.”
Howe played a central role in both late rallies, reaching base to start the seventh and doubling in the eighth. Hull and Hynek both praised the freshman for the work that made those moments possible.
“He’s very mature for a freshman,” Hull said. “I’m really happy to have him out in the outfield. He’s a great player, but he is also a great person off the field.”
Hynek said Howe’s late-game contributions were not a surprise inside UNC’s clubhouse.
“The kid works his butt off,” Hynek said. “Multiple times in the last couple weeks he’s been working on some things with Coach [Wierzbicki]. He’s the first guy back in the cage getting some extra work in. So it’s not really a shock that the kid’s come up big.”
DeCaro, who also threw well in Omaha two years ago against Virginia, said his recent stretch has come from finishing hitters more efficiently.
“Just doing a better job executing when I’m ahead in the count,” DeCaro said. “I feel like even in those starts, I was ahead a lot and just didn’t make my pitch enough. But that’s been a big focus for me over the last three or four weeks.”
The Tar Heels needed all of it on a night when little came easy offensively until late. Forbes liked the way UNC stayed committed to its approach, even when Rabe’s fastball overpowered hitters early.
“Don’t look at that scoreboard, just try to battle as much as you can, try to find a way to get on base, and don’t let him have quick innings,” Forbes said. “That’s the goal. Don’t let him get in too much of a rhythm.”
That belief has become part of the identity of a team that keeps finding answers late in games.
“We know that we’re never out of the fight, especially with our pitching staff,” Hynek said. “That’s two games in a row that we’ve been pretty slow offensively until the end of the game, and they’ve just held it in there until we could finally break through.”
Notes
—It was the first meeting between UNC and Ole Miss, but the win evened the Tar Heels’ record in Omaha against SEC teams to 5–5.
—Carolina is 3–1 against West Virginia, including a 2–1 and 8–6 sweep in the 2024 Chapel Hill Super Regional to advance to Omaha. West Virginia won 5–1 on March 19, 2014, and Carolina won 4–3 on March 4, 2000.
—It was the third consecutive opening-game CWS win for UNC after beating Virginia 3–2 in 2024 and Oregon State 8–6 in 2018, pushing it to 6–7 in openers.
—UNC is 20–25 all-time in Omaha.
—Friday night’s attendance was 23,883.
—The game-time temperature for Friday afternoon’s first CWS game of 80° was the lowest for an opener since 2017.
—Men’s basketball coach Michael Malone was at the game.
No. 4 UNC 6, No. 23 Ole Miss 2
College World Series
At Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Omaha, Neb.
Sunday, June 21, game on ABC, all other games on ESPN
Bracket 1
No. 5-seed and No. 4-ranked North Carolina (51–12–1), No. 16-seed and No. 9-ranked West Virginia (48–16), Troy (38–31) and No. 23-ranked Ole Miss (41–22)
Bracket 2
No. 3-seed and No. 3-ranked Georgia (51–12), No. 6-seed and No. 6-ranked Texas (45–13), No. 7-seed and No. 16-ranked Alabama (42–19) and Oklahoma (38–22)
Pool play
All listed times are ET
(Probable starting pitchers)
Friday’s games
Game 1: West Virginia 7, Troy 5
Game 2: North Carolina 6, Ole Miss 2
Saturday’s games
Game 3: Oklahoma (freshman left-hander Cord Rager, 5–3, 5.20 ERA) vs. Alabama (redshirt junior right-hander Tyler Fay, 11–4, 4.37 ERA), 3:09 p.m.
Game 4: Georgia (junior right-hander Joey Volchko, 13–2, 4.00 ERA) vs. Texas (sophomore left-hander Dyan Volantis, 10–1, 2.03 ERA), 8:09 p.m.
Sunday’s games
Game 5: Troy vs. Ole Miss loser, elimination game, 2:09 p.m.
Game 6: West Virginia vs. North Carolina, 7:09 p.m.
Monday’s games
Game 7: OU-Alabama loser vs. Ga.-Texas loser, elimination game, 2:09 p.m.
Game 8: OU-Alabama winner vs. Ga.-Texas winner, 7:09 p.m.
Tuesday’s games
Game 9: Troy-Ole Miss winner vs. UNC-WVU loser, elimination game, 2:09 p.m.
Game 10: Monday afternoon winner vs. Monday night loser, elimination game, 7:09 p.m.
Wednesday’s games
Game 11: UNC-WVU winner vs. Tuesday afternoon winner, 2:09 p.m.
Game 12: Monday night winner vs. Tuesday night winner, 7:09 p.m.
Thursday’s games
Deciding Bracket 1 game if Game 9 winner also wins Game 11
Deciding Bracket 2 game if Game 10 winner also wins Game 12
CWS Finals
(Best-of-3 series)
Game 1: Saturday, June 20, 8:09 p.m.
Game 2: Sunday, June 21, 1:39 p.m.
Game 3: Monday, June 22, (if needed) 8:09 p.m.
| 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 |
| 30–31 | Sat.–Sun. | W, 7–5, W, 9–3 | East Carolina | 48–11–1 |
| June | ||||
| Chapel Hill Super Regionals | ||||
| 5–7 | Fri.–Sun. | L, 9–5, W, 4–0, W, 4–3 | Southern Cal | 50–12–1 |
| College World Series | Omaha, Neb. | |||
| 12 | Friday | W, 6–2 | No. 18 Ole Miss | 51–12–1 |
| 14 | Sunday | 7:09 p.m. | No. 9 West Virginia | ESPN |
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
