North Carolina’s Consistency Has It Knocking on Omaha’s Door Again

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Following in the footsteps of a Hall of Fame coach like Mike Fox is no small task, but the standard hasn’t slipped in Chapel Hill under Scott Forbes.

In each of Forbes’ six seasons at the helm, the Diamond Heels have heard their name called on Selection Monday and hosted NCAA regionals at Boshamer Stadium four times. Along the way, North Carolina has captured two ACC Tournament championships and an ACC Coastal Division title.

Sunday’s 9-3 victory over ECU added another feather to Forbes’ Carolina blue cap, sending the Tar Heels to the super regional round for the fourth time in five seasons while improving his NCAA Tournament record to 19-13 as head coach.

Now, North Carolina sits two wins away from the program’s 13th trip to Omaha and its second under Forbes.

“My goal always was, if I was ever fortunate enough to be a head coach, to have sustained success every year,” Forbes said. “Have a chance to host regionals, be in a super regional, have a team every year that’s competitive, because I think that’s the hardest thing to do.”

Yet despite all of the success accumulated over the past six seasons, the Tar Heels accomplished something Sunday they had never done under Forbes: navigate a regional weekend without a loss.

There will be no winner-take-all Monday game this year against the likes of VCU in 2022, LSU in 2024 or Oklahoma in 2025. Instead, North Carolina completed a perfect 3-0 run through the Chapel Hill Regional, earning an extra day of rest before next weekend’s super regional against either Texas A&M or Southern California — and it only took seven pitchers to do so.

“I hate to use the word stress… but that’s a tough night to sleep,” Forbes said. “We (won on Monday) in (2022), we did it in (2024), did it in (2025) — you still feel good about it because you trust your guys.”

Last season, Carolina needed 11 different pitchers to emerge from regional play before falling to Arizona in the super regional. In 2024, 10 Tar Heel pitchers saw action during the Chapel Hill Regional. This weekend, however, at a time of year when pitching depth can make or break a postseason run, North Carolina bought its arm barn another day of rest.

“It does help you going into the weekend to have a little bit more rest and a little bit more time to stay on task,” Forbes said.

In an era of college athletics defined by constant roster turnover and the ever-changing transfer portal, Forbes has built one of the nation’s most stable programs.

Year after year, North Carolina has blended veteran leadership with impactful newcomers, all while maintaining a coaching staff that has remained intact throughout Forbes’ tenure.

“It’s not about me, it’s about the players,” Forbes said. “You get great players, they make you look awfully good.

“And your staff — one thing we’ve had here at UNC — is we’ve had a consistent coaching staff, even for coach Fox. We haven’t had much turnover, and that’s so important. It’s hard to do.”

Players North Carolina wouldn’t have advanced through this weekend without — Colin Hynek, Jake Schaffner, Caden Glauber and Erik Paulsen among them — arrived in Chapel Hill and quickly became part of a culture established by longtime Tar Heels such as Gavin Gallaher, Matthew Matthijs and Folger Boaz.

“We’re just a really tight group,” Paulsen said. “I wasn’t treated as a newcomer, so to say. As soon as I got here, the older guys took us all in, and we all complement each other really well.

“Guys like (Gallaher) as a captain, (Matthijs) as a captain — they just do a really good job in the locker room, making sure the culture is really good. Credit to them for holding the culture that coach Forbes sets for us.”

That formula has produced one of the sport’s most consistent winners. Different rosters, different stars and different paths through the postseason, yet the result remains largely the same: North Carolina playing meaningful baseball into June.

And after becoming the first Forbes-led team to navigate a regional weekend unscathed, the Tar Heels are once again within reach of Omaha.