North Carolina baseball is making a 12th trip to the College World Series, heading back to Omaha for the first time since 2018 after a 2-0 sweep of West Virginia in the Super Regional. And head coach Scott Forbes gave it up to the home crowd at Boshamer Stadium for fueling the Tar Heels.
With both games during the Chapel Hill Super Regional decided by two or fewer runs, including a walk-off win for the Tar Heels in Game 1, Forbes knows every voice in the crowd helped get his team over the hump.
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“I talked to the team last night, I said, ‘Hey, if you guys want to bridge the gap a little bit to make it a little bit easier on us coaches, go ahead,'” Forbes said after the Game 2 win. “But it didn’t surprise me we were in that burner. And I just have to say, I’ve never seen that good of an atmosphere. We’ve had great atmospheres here. And that’s a credit to everybody coming out, everybody paying attention to this team, how they play. They play the right way, they respect the game. And that helped us. That helped this team get to the College World Series and I’m hoping that will continue to grow.”
He continued, explaining his hope that the atmosphere over the weekend can be a touchstone for young players going forward.
“Because college baseball’s at an all-time high and I’m excited for all of our teams and these young guys that’ll be back here, seeing it, this is what it’s supposed to look like and if you do what you’re supposed to do, you’ve got a chance to play in front of that big of a crowd,” Forbes said.
One of UNC’s stars wasn’t shy about the goal in Omaha
Despite all the success through the years, the Tar Heels have still not hoisted a national championship trophy in their program’s long history.
It’s every college baseball player’s dream to play in Omaha during the month of June, and a goal that North Carolina’s players set for themselves during their first team meeting in the fall. But star outfielder Vance Honeycutt revealed that just an appearance in the College World Series was not solely what the Tar Heels set out for.
“Well it wasn’t to get there, it was to win it and this is just another stepping stone towards that,” Honeycutt said following Saturday’s win over West Virginia. “But whenever that first meeting comes I think everyone believes it, if you didn’t believe it you wouldn’t be here. To get there and to be on that track now, it’s rewarding.”
The hard work and focus on their end goal this offseason has paid off for the Tar Heels this year. A resilient group that has seen contributions from veteran players, true freshman, and several transfers in order the work their way towards college baseball’s biggest stage.
“Yeah to go off of what Vance said, we’re going to win it,” pitcher Dalton Pence added. “That first team meeting everyone was like okay, let’s get after it. And the days following everybody was putting in the work and nobody’s skipping reps or doing anything like that. Like we know the guys on this team were building toward the right thing.”
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