Covering Carolina athletics beyond men’s basketball and football, with dedicated reporting on women’s basketball and baseball, in addition to covering other sports that rarely draw media attention
CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina will hand the baseball to its young pitching star with a trip to the College World Series on the line. The Tar Heels have not lost a game this season when ACC Freshman of the Year Caden Glauber (10–0, 2.05 ERA) pitches, and the sensational right-hander will start Sunday’s 3:06 p.m. winner-take-all Game 3 (ESPN) against USC in Boshamer Stadium.
CHAPEL HILL — With the season on the line, Jason DeCaro authored the best pitching performance of his career. Coming off consecutive tough starts, the junior right-hander was magnificent Saturday as No. 4 North Carolina beat USC 4–0 at Boshamer Stadium before 3,951 fans to put the Tar Heels one win away from their second College World Series in three seasons.
North Carolina got a commitment Saturday from former William & Mary shortstop Jamie Laskofski, who was the CAA Player of the Year this season and is ranked No. 39 in the 2027 MLB draft.
CHAPEL HILL — One hanging slider from one of the best relievers in the country erased a Carolina lead and turned the momentum. Anticipating the slider, UNC reliever Walker McDuffie’s best pitch, Southern Cal’s Dean Carpentier lofted it just over the left-field wall for a sixth-inning grand slam to erase a three-run deficit.
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 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.
For the second consecutive season, a team from the west will head to the Chapel Hill Super Regional. No. 2 regional seed Southern Cal won the College Station Regional on Monday night with a 7–1 victory over No. 1 regional seed and No. 11-ranked Texas A&M to earn a trip to Chapel Hill to face No. 5 overall seed North Carolina. It will be the first Super Regional since 2002 for the Trojans, who were ranked as No. 12 this season, but finished the season unranked.
CHAPEL HILL — With its third consecutive Super Regionals berth secured after going 3-0 at the Chapel Hill Regional, No. 4 North Carolina can sit back and watch two teams battle late Monday night for the right to play the Tar Heels. That is a welcome change for a program that had to fight through a deciding Monday game in each of the previous two seasons, beating LSU 4-3 in 10 innings in 2024 and knocking off Oklahoma 14-4 in 2025 to advance.
CHAPEL HILL — If you let No. 4 North Carolina pile up runs early, the Tar Heels’ bullpen isn’t going to let you back into the game. East Carolina discovered that on successive nights, and that has UNC heading to the Chapel Hill Super Regional for a third consecutive season.
CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina and East Carolina will meet for the fifth time this season, and the Pirates hope for a sixth matchup. The Pirates, the No. 3 seed in the Chapel Hill Regional, earned the latest battle of in-state rivals by rolling to a 10–0 victory over No. 4 seed VCU in an elimination game Sunday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium.
CHAPEL HILL — It took Colin Hynek’s red-hot bat, along with some between-pitches words from Coach Scott Forbes, to ignite Carolina’s offense. Hynek’s game-tying three-run homer in the fourth inning was the catalyst as the No. 4 Tar Heels erased an early three-run deficit to knock off East Carolina 7–5 in a winners bracket game Saturday of the Chapel Hill Regional.
CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina and Tennessee are taking a similar approach to the first day of the Chapel Hill Regional, and it has everything to do with what could be waiting on Saturday.
CHAPEL HILL — While the pressure of NCAA tournament play is too much for some players, Gavin Gallaher has repeatedly met the moment with clutch hits. Just call him Mr. Chapel Hill Regional.
CHAPEL HILL — Last season, North Carolina could usually count on ace Jake Knapp to go deep into each start, which kept the bullpen fresh for the rest of the weekend. That’s even more important in the postseason when falling into the losers’ bracket could mean the pitching staff has to cover many innings, often with little recovery time between games. The margin for error shrinks in a four-team regional, and the pressure on a bullpen can compound quickly if a starter cannot provide length in the opener.
For the first time in 17 years, North Carolina has earned a top-eight national seed in the NCAA baseball tournament for three consecutive seasons.
CHARLOTTE — Few teams have been able to hold back Georgia Tech’s potent offense this season. No. 2 North Carolina is one of them, holding the Yellow Jackets to 11 runs in winning two of three during a mid-April series. But the Jackets, who came into the ACC tournament championship game averaging 10.7 runs per game, bettered that series output on Sunday.
