Category: Baseball

Carolina gives Forbes five-year contract extention

After getting Carolina into the NCAA tournament in his first two seasons as head coach and on his way to doing it for a third consecutive year, UNC gave baseball coach Scott Forbes a five-year contract extension on Friday. The new contract means that Forbes, whose team won its third consecutive game Thursday night with a 9–8 victory over rival N.C. State, is under contract through the 2028 season.

Resilient Tar Heels rally from rough start for huge win over State

CHAPEL HILL — The maddening pattern of short outings by starters again threw Carolina’s bullpen for a loop. But the resilient Tar Heels, with yeoman work from the relievers, rallied to overcome it this time. Eric Grintz tied it with a pinch-hit RBI triple to right field in the ninth inning. Colby Wilkerson scored pinch-runner Carter French on a suicide squeeze with one out to give UNC a thrilling 9–8 victory Thursday at Boshamer Stadium.

With ‘chip on their shoulders,’ Heels could get on a roll, starting this weekend against Pack

CHAPEL HILL — As North Carolina’s baseball season has progressed through tough one-run losses and big wins, it’s clear that the Tar Heels are at a different level when, as Coach Scott Forbes says, they play with a chip on their shoulders. Junior third baseman Mac Horvath has talked about the need for UNC to play with a purpose and not be joking around after a defeat as if losing is acceptable, telling the team that in a players-only meeting last month.

After words exchanged in heated moment, fired-up UNC knocks off Gardner-Webb for Forbes’ 100th win as Horvath powers to history

CHAPEL HILL — What was supposed to be an easy tune-up for North Carolina ahead of a big weekend series with N.C. State turned into an unexpected battle with heated words exchanged. UNC’s 5–4 come-from-behind victory over Gardner-Webb at Boshamer Stadium on Tuesday night marked the 100th victory as head coach for Scott Forbes, while junior third baseman Mac Horvath blasted into program history. But the craziness of the seventh and eighth innings made for a wild Bark at the Bosh night.

UNC gets outstanding pitching, Honeycutt HR in huge victory at No. 14 ECU despite season-low three hits

With three rested pitchers, North Carolina got its best overall pitching performance in weeks on a night that the Tar Heels needed it to win. UNC collected a season-low three hits, but they were enough as the Tar Heels got a huge 2–1 victory Wednesday at a soldout Clark-LeClair Stadium in Greenville over No. 14 East Carolina to snap a three-game losing streak against the Pirates.

UNC, in last five out last week, now projected to make the NCAA baseball field

The latest D1 Baseball projection of the NCAA tournament field has Carolina as the No. 3 seed in the Conway, S.C., regional, with No. 8 Coastal Carolina as the host. That projection has No. 13 East Carolina (31–11), which lost to the Tar Heels (29–17) 2–1 in Greenville on Wednesday, as the No. 2 seed in that regional, with Maine as the No. 4 seed.

UNC’s woes against ranked teams and in one-run games continue against No. 13 Camels

CHAPEL HILL — With final exams underway at Carolina, the Tar Heels failed in the first of two tests this week against ranked teams as their frustrations in one-run games continued. UNC got stellar defense and some, but not enough, timely hitting, but it wasn’t enough as No. 13 Campbell rallied for a 6–5 victory Tuesday at Boshamer Stadium to end a seven-game skid against the Tar Heels.

After Hokies’ talk in contentious first inning, UNC does talking with bats, sweeps doubleheader to win series

In a game that started with a lot of talk and cockiness from Virginia Tech, the Tar Heels did their talking with their bats. Tomas Frick, in the middle of a first-inning dust-up, gave Carolina the lead for good with a two-run fourth-inning home run. The Heels beat the Hokies 13–7 to sweep the Saturday doubleheader at English Field in Blacksburg, Va., and win an ACC series after losing the previous two.

Horvath’s two HRs, 7 RBI power UNC to much-needed win over Hokies

Scoreless in the previous 13 innings, Carolina needed a spark to break out of an offensive funk. Enter Mac Horvath. The junior third baseman swung so hard that he lunged over the plate during his backswing. His fourth-inning drive went 416 feet, well over the left-field fence, for a grand slam and flipped the Tar Heels’ fortunes in a game they had to have.

Wrestler O’Connor, diver Vazquez take top honors at Rammys; Maye pass Top Play

Two individual national champions — wrestler Austin O’Connor and diver Aranza Vazquez — earned Athlete of the Year honors at the Rammy Awards on Monday night at Memorial Hall. The awards program recognizes excellence in Carolina athletics over the previous year. Women’s basketball center Malu Tshitenge of women’s basketball and football defensive lineman Kaimon Rucker were the hosts for the event, which was back at Memorial Hall for the first time since 2019.

BC finishes off sweep of Heels, who hope to repeat last season’s late surge

CHAPEL HILL — Getting swept in a late April ACC series is discouraging for No. 18 North Carolina, but the memory of last season gives the Tar Heels hope that they can still achieve plenty this season. No. 20 Boston College rallied for a 6–2 victory Sunday at Boshamer Stadium to finish off a sweep of the Tar Heels a year after UNC got swept at Virginia for its fifth consecutive conference series loss.