When life provides you with opportunities, you better be ready to capitalize on them.
On Sunday night, Scott Forbes and the Diamond Heels were ready to make West Virginia pay for some key mistakes they made in the winners bracket meeting between the two programs.
UNC advances to the CWS regional title game
Behind a stellar outing in relief from Walker McDuffie, the Tar Heels found a way to get the job done against West Virginia. The win now puts the Diamond Heels in Wednesday afternoon's regional title game, as they are officially one win away from clinching their ticket to the 2026 Men’s College World Series Championship Series.
The story of the game was capitalizing in key spots, something that North Carolina did tremendously well. Going against West Virginia ace Maxx Yehl, the Tar Heels knew runs would be tough to come by. However, in the bottom half of the first, UNC pushed across two runs, courtesy of an Erik Paulsen based-loaded walk followed by an RBI groundout from Cooper Nicholson.
Before UNC got to that point, there were two key components that impacted the inning.
First, Jake Schaffner was in a two-strike count and swung at an inside pitch. Ruled a foul ball, the pitch actually hit Schaffner, which means he should've been called out on strikes. West Virginia didn't challenge, and the Tar Heels shortstop responded with a leadoff single.
A few batters later, Macon Winslow was barely grazed by a pitch on his front foot, a play that the Mountaineers did challenge to no avail.
Both calls were huge in the inning, one which they got right while the other was a major miss.
Regardless, West Virginia would get to Ryan Lynch, scoring runs in the third and fourth innings to tie the game up at two.
With two outs in the fifth inning, Forbes showed he was in this one to win it. After allowing a two-out base runner, Lynch was pulled in favor of Walker McDuffie, who struck out the first batter he faced to end the frame.
The sophomore right-hander would pitch into the ninth inning, allowing just three hits over 3.2 innings of work. Needless to say, UNC doesn't win this game without his presence on the mound.
With the score still tied at two going into the bottom of the seventh, the pressure on both sides was starting to mount. Yehl was dealing on the mound and the Diamond Heels needed a small break.
Well, the baseball gods gave them two.
Colin Hynek led off the inning reaching on an error by the third baseman, and two batters later, Schaffner reached based on an error by the second baseman that should've been a routine double play.
You know what they say, right guy, right spot. Well, Gavin Gallaher was that guy once again.
Following his RBI single in the College World Series opener to break the tie, the junior second baseman did it again, this time hitting an RBI triple to regain the lead. Owen Hull added an RBI single right after, and that's all the runs UNC would need.
Caden Glauber came in to close it out, striking out the two batters he faced to secure the victory.
What a win it was for the Diamond Heels, who now are in the driver's seat. They await the winner of Tuesday's elimination game between Troy and West Virginia, as they'll have a fully loaded pitching staff ready in their quest to be one step closer to their ultimate goal.
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