By R.L. Bynum
OMAHA, Neb. — As Oklahoma celebrated on the field, North Carolina players lingered in the third-base dugout, still processing how their amazing run to Omaha ended with such frustration.
The Tar Heels weren’t belaboring the 13–2 loss to Oklahoma in Game 3 of the CWS Finals as much as remembering the togetherness and love shared on a team that will never play together again as an entire group.
For co-captain Gavin Gallaher, the pain of watching Oklahoma celebrate had as much to do with finality as the missed opportunity. The junior said this team stood apart because of how fully everyone bought into the collective identity Coach Scott Forbes and his staff wanted.
“This is probably the most hurt I’ve ever felt in my life, and not just because we’re one game away from doing something that no UNC baseball team has ever done, but more so just because this is the end of the season,” Gallaher said. “We say it all the time, from the very beginning, this team will never be this team again.”
That was the scene Forbes carried with him most Monday night, not the final score or the Sooners’ dogpile, but the moments afterward as he moved down the dugout rail to speak to one player after another.
“I was just telling them that I love them. That’s it,” Forbes said. “And I thanked them. Because they’re the ones that brought us here. Coaches, head coach especially, get way too much credit. It’s everybody else, the staff, the strength coach, the assistant coaches, the administration.”
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Forbes remembers the pain of the last out of the Division III World Series at North Carolina Wesleyan and knew his players were hurting.
“I know what that pain feels like,” he said. “The pain’s the pain. And I just wanted them to know how grateful I am for what they’ve taken us all on.”
Forbes shifted from immediate disappointment to appreciation for a group that pushed UNC within one win of its first national title.
“I couldn’t be prouder of a group,” Forbes said. “We talk all the time about service, about serving one another. I don’t tell them this, but I write it down every day for myself, in Galatians 5:13: ‘True service, serving one another through love, humbly in love and how powerful love is.’ ”
Forbes said that spirit defined the Tar Heels from the start to the end of the season.
“This group loved each other all season,” Forbes said. “They took us on a ride that was unbelievable. We came up a little bit short. But I would take that ride again every day of the year.
“While we’re sad, the sadness will go away,” he said. “We also talk about joy. Joy doesn’t go away, and these guys have given me, our coaching staff, our fans, our administration, everybody a ton of joy and a ton to be proud of.”
Gallaher said this was the best team he has played on in Chapel Hill, not simply because it reached the final game of the college baseball season, but because every player embraced his role.
“I love every single one of those guys in the locker room,” Gallaher said. “I would go to battle for anybody in that locker room. Just the way that everybody showed up every single day, everybody put themselves to the side and put the team first.
“And no matter who you put on that field, you could trust that they were going to give everything that they had,” Gallaher said. “And that’s just a requirement of being here. So to see a group buy into that as much as we did, that’s the reason we’re here.”
Matthew Matthijs, the other team captain and a player whose four-year UNC career included both All-America success and injury setbacks, described the season in similar terms.
He smiled when he admitted the Tar Heels could be “a little dumb on the field” at times, but his larger point was that there was no one in that room he would not want beside him.
“There’s nobody in that locker room that I wouldn’t want to go to battle for no matter what troubles we have,” Matthijs said. “Just thankful for that group. They voted us captains, and we tried to lead the best we could. I’d go do this journey all over again with them.”
Both co-captains were just as emphatic about the staff that guided them there. Gallaher said the care players receive within the program sets UNC apart from many of its peers.
“The coaching staff, they’re amazing,” Gallaher said. “If you are a player and you’re looking for a place that’s going to care for you and they’re going to love you, they’re going to put you as a person before they put you as a player, they’re going to show up every day and they’re going to give you their best no matter what their lives off the field look like, it’s truly amazing.”
Matthijs followed by pointing toward Forbes and saying he did not believe there was another coaching staff in the country that loved its players more.
“He cares about us. He loves us,” Matthijs said. “There’s no other coaching staff that I would want to play for, spend my four years with. I’ve loved every minute.”
That player-coach bond was central to Forbes’s explanation of his emotions after the loss. He said the tears were not really about the scoreboard. They were about the possibility that Gallaher had played his last game at UNC, the certainty that Matthijs had, and the realization that one of the most connected groups he had coached had come to an end.
“The thing I’m going to miss the most is just being with them,” Forbes said. “That’s what I’m going to miss the most. It gets emotional back there. But I’m thankful, too. I’m thankful that I’ve been given the opportunity. It’s an honor and a privilege to be the head coach at University of North Carolina. I don’t take that lightly. And I’m just so proud of this team and what they did and the hard work they put in to get us here.”
Even in defeat, Forbes said this team reinforced what matters most in building a program. UNC had seven new everyday starters after last year’s Super Regional team, yet still reached the final day of the season because the group kept the team first.
“They taught me the importance of what being a team means,” Forbes said. “They kept the team first. Because of that, we’re sitting here right now. We’re just not on the right end of it. If you work and you put that work in every single day, with a team-first mentality, you have a real chance to play in the national championship, even if it’s a bunch of new faces, even if maybe it’s not five first-round draft picks.”
That belief will shape whatever comes next for a program that has now come within one win of a national title twice in 20 years. Forbes said UNC will keep pushing until it finally breaks through.
“I sure hope so,” Forbes said when asked if it is only a matter of time before the Tar Heels win it all. “We’re going to try. That’s for sure. We’re going to work our tails off to get back here. And the more you get to a place, hopefully, you can knock that door down. We’ve just got to keep the main thing the main thing, and that’s the players, and helping them get better and leave here better people. You’ve got to feel like eventually that winning will take care of itself.”
On a night that ended with Oklahoma’s celebration, North Carolina’s players and coaches kept returning to the same themes: love, gratitude, sacrifice and the joy of a season that lasted until the final day. Forbes said that joy will outlast the hurt.
“And I love them,” Forbes said. “They know how much I love them, and I’m just thankful for the group and for the season that we had. They just took us on a heck of a ride, and I’ll be eternally grateful for that.”
College World Series
At Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Omaha, Neb.
Pool play
All listed times are ET
June 12 results
West Virginia 7, Troy 5
North Carolina 6, Ole Miss 2
June 13 results
Oklahoma 9, Alabama 0
Georgia 7, Texas 1
June 14 results
Troy 12, Ole Miss 8; Ole Miss eliminated
North Carolina 5, West Virginia 2
June 15 results
Texas 14, Alabama 2; Alabama eliminated
Oklahoma 4, Georgia 3
Tuesday’s results
West Virginia 12, Troy 0; Troy eliminated
Georgia 2, Texas 0; Texas eliminated
Wednesday’s results
North Carolina 12, West Virginia 7; West Virginia eliminated
Oklahoma 11, Georgia 4; Georgia eliminated
CWS Finals
(Best-of-3 series)
North Carolina vs. Oklahoma
Game 1 Saturday: Oklahoma 9, North Carolina 3
Game 2 Sunday: North Carolina 6, Oklahoma 2
Game 3 Monday: Oklahoma 13, North Carolina 2; Sooners win national title
Photos by Gene Galin
