The opening game of the College World Series Championship series did not go the way that Scott Forbes and the UNC baseball program had envisioned.
Oklahoma's big fourth inning rally was the difference in game one, allowing the Sooners to take a 1-0 lead in this best-of-three series.
Now, the Tar Heels have their backs against the wall, needing to win on Sunday afternoon to keep their season alive. Fortunately, this isn't new to this group, as they've been in this situation before. Most notably, we all remember the Chapel Hill Super Regional, one in which the Tar Heels lost the opening game to USC before rallying to win the next two to advance to Omaha.
While the stage is a little bit bigger in this scenario, the Diamond Heels have experience playing with their season on the line.
After the loss on Saturday afternoon, Scott Forbes talked to the media about the game and what his mentality is heading into Sunday. As you could probably expect, Forbes has the absolute perfect mentality for his team as they look to extend their season one more day.
Scott Forbes has the right mentality following CWS Game One loss
"The great thing about baseball when you’re playing in a weekend series is you move on quickly," Forbes said. "That’s what our team will do. They just beat us today."
As Forbes noted, one of the beautiful things about the sport of baseball is the quick turnaround. When you're playing a three-game series during the regular season, you still can very much win it even if you lose that opening game, as there's plenty of baseball to be played.
It's not an impossible task to win two games in a row, especially with how good this Diamond Heels team has been throughout the entire 2026 season.
Sure, Oklahoma is red-hot and is playing like absolute world beaters at this point, but let's remember: every winning streak gets snapped eventually, and UNC has what it takes to put together a complete game to defeat the Sooners to force a winner-take-all game on Monday night.
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Even though Saturday didn't go as planned, you can't lose confidence in your team or the process that got you to this point. One game can't change your mentality and certainly can't deflate your confidence.
North Carolina will take some time to reflect on Saturday's game, looking for ways to improve heading into Sunday's contest. They'll head to sleep and will wake up on Sunday morning with a fresh slate and the same excitement to play the game as they typically have on any particular game day.
Forbes said it quite perfectly while speaking to the media, and it's safe to say that the players will get similar words of encouragement before the day comes to a close.
"We’ll flush that (loss to Oklahoma) quickly, like we have been doing all year, and we’ll wake up and be excited to play tomorrow."
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