Scott Forbes had never been a pitching coach when he told North Carolina's Mike Fox, "I can do this."

Three years later, UNC's pitchers are tops in the country in ERA (2.27) and strikeouts (483) because Forbes has convinced them that they can do it, too.

"Mechanics are a big part of pitching, but you've got to be confident,'' said senior Rob Wooten, who credits Forbes with instilling his can-do attitude on the mound. "It's mostly mental. If you go out there and think you can do it, you usually get it done."

UNC's pitchers are a testament to that. Since Forbes, a former volunteer assistant, returned to Carolina as pitching coach in 2005, the Tar Heels have been to back-to-back College World Series -- and with a 40-8 record they have a legitimate chance for a return trip in June -- despite losing their top pitchers to the draft and graduation year after year. Carolina begins a three-game series at Virginia tonight.

Part of the Tar Heels' continued success has been physical. Through strong recruiting, UNC brought in the likes of sophomore Brian Moran (24 appearances, 1.05 ERA) and redshirt freshman Colin Bates (4-0, 1.41 ERA) to supplement returners Wooten (3-1), Alex White (7-2) and Adam Warren (7-1).

But part of it has been mental, too: convincing former high school starters such as Moran and Bates that pitching in relief would be best for the team and making all of them believe that there was no reason the pitching staff could not improve upon last year.

"Coach Forbes sat the pitchers down the very first day they arrived in here and said, 'I don't want to hear any of that we-lost-so-and-so; we're going to be better than we were last year,' " said Fox, who coached Forbes at N.C. Wesleyan before becoming head coach at North Carolina in 1999. "So he plants that seed right in their heads right out of the gate -- that you're going to lose pitchers, you're going to lose juniors to the draft, seniors to graduation every year, and what is going to be your response to that?"

So far, pretty darn good.

Forbes was an assistant coach at Winthrop from 2003-05 before returning to Chapel Hill. Although he had never coached pitchers, he has long been used to working with them. The Sanford native was a part-time pitcher through high school and was so determined to compete that even after he was hit by a car at a Christmas parade as a 12-year-old, he was back on the mound even before his broken leg had fully healed.

"He always hated to lose,'' his dad, Harvey, said. "He was always doing his best to help his teams win. ... His high school coach always said he might coach one day, just because of his competitive instincts and the way he related to his teammates on the field."

Those attributes carried over to his three-year career at Wesleyan. There, his mom gave him his favorite book, "The Power of Positive Thinking,'' and Fox let him make most of the pitching calls from behind the plate. Both contributed to the coach he has become.

"I think catchers automatically relate well to pitchers, because you're with them all the time -- in the bullpen, you're catching them, you're seeing what their ball's doing more than anybody, even more than your coach, because you're following it, tracking it, thinking on the same line as the pitcher how to get the hitter out," Forbes said. "... And I took great pride in knowing the hitters during a game, a series -- knowing what they were good at, and knowing our pitchers, too."

He still does.

Although he has tweaked the mechanics of some of his pitchers -- for instance, lowering Wooten's throwing motion two years ago -- his biggest emphasis has been his players' mind-set. He reads just about every book he can get his hands on about coaching philosophies. (John Wooden's remains his favorite.) Meanwhile, he pushes his pitchers to concentrate on wins and losses rather than ERA and keeps his coaching philosophy simple: Stay focused, work hard, throw strikes, compete.

"Hopefully, what everyone sees in our pitching staff is they're going to have good mound presence,'' Forbes said. "They're going to look confident, they're not going to show any kind of weakness. Basically, they're going to be tough you-know-whats, or they won't pitch."

He told Fox three years ago: "I can do it."

Now he has his pitchers believing: "We can do it."