Jason DeCaro pitches complete game as UNC baseball takes Game 2 of Super Regional

Jason DeCaro said he didn’t feel settled until the third inning on Saturday. The right-handed ace returned to the dugout following that frame — which saw him record three quick outs on nine total tosses — and told his pitching coach, UNC’s Bryant Gaines, that he felt “way better” than he did in the first two innings.

As it turns out, DeCaro felt good enough to go all the way.

DeCaro, North Carolina’s typical Friday starter, pitched the first nine-inning complete game of his college career to help lift the No. 5 overall seeded Tar Heels to a 4-0 win over USC on Saturday. With UNC’s season on the line, DeCaro’s career game couldn’t have come at a better time. The win evens the best-of-three Super Regional series at 1-1 and will force a winner-take-all game at 3 p.m. Sunday at Boshamer Stadium.

“Jason DeCaro, since the day he walked on campus — since the day he trusted us and gave up his high school senior year — he’s been nothing but phenomenal,” said North Carolina coach Scott Forbes. “He saved that biggest CG for a big, big moment. So I’m most excited for him.”

DeCaro left a bit to be desired in his Chapel Hill Regional start — allowing three runs on six hits in a May 30 win over ECU — but never wavered against the Trojans. Southern Cal hadn’t been shut out all season, but the Trojans hadn’t yet faced DeCaro — the All-ACC First Team selectee who picked up his 11th win of the year Saturday.

The junior right-handed pitcher attacked early, recording a first pitch strike on 23 of the 31 batters he faced. DeCaro gave up just two singles and a walk, struck out eight batters and did not allow a single Trojan past first base.

“He got ahead early and often throughout the entire game,” USC junior Adrian Lopez. “So when a pitcher is doing that constantly, you’re going up there in a little bit of a swing mode. And then he would execute a lot of really good pitches.”

When the Boshamer Stadium crowd saw DeCaro take the mound for the ninth inning, it greeted him with thunderous applause.

Bryant Gaines, UNC’s pitching coach, grabbed DeCaro before he took the field for the final frame. Gaines told the junior, “You’re in control. So pitch like it.”

DeCaro said that advice, combined with the energy from the home crowd, helped him close the game out.

“It gave me a little bit of adrenaline right there,” DeCaro said. “Coach Gaines told me, ‘Use the crowd to your advantage.’ It’s not about really executing the pitch, it’s just about getting after it out there for that ninth inning.”

And that’s exactly what DeCaro did. He recorded another three up, three down frame in the ninth inning — his fourth overall on Saturday and third straight to close the game — and celebrated with a big hug for Colin Hynek, his catcher.

Following an uncharacteristically poor performance from North Carolina’s pitching staff in Friday’s 9-5 loss to USC, DeCaro’s outing Saturday offered a reminder why the Tar Heels boast one of the best pitching staffs in college baseball in recent years.

The Tar Heels’ offense was held scoreless for three innings after Colin Hynek’s solo home run in the second, but got on the board again when UNC junior first baseman Erik Paulsen recorded a solo blast of his own to left field. It marked one of two runs North Carolina scored in the top of the sixth inning, with the other coming off a Rom Kellis V sacrifice fly to score Hynek.

Macon Winslow hit a sacrifice fly of his own in the top of the seventh inning to score junior second baseman Gavin Gallaher — who had an excellent game defensively and was one of three Tar Heels (along with Owen Hull and Hynek) to record multiple hits Saturday.

One note of concern for UNC: North Carolina has gone 1 for 18 with runners in scoring position so far this weekend and stranded 21 runners in all.

The Tar Heels will look to improve upon that mark Sunday.

With the win, the Tar Heels and Trojans will face off in a winner-take-all Chapel Hill Super Regional Game 3 on Sunday at Boshamer Stadium. Forbes said either freshman right-handed pitcher Caden Glauber or junior lefty Folger Boaz will start Sunday.

A win Sunday would send the Tar Heels to their ninth College World Series appearance since 2006 — seven of those trips coming after a Chapel Hill Super Regional — and 13th in program history.

The Tar Heels have never advanced to Omaha after dropping Game 1 of the Super Regionals.

This story was originally published June 6, 2026 at 5:18 PM.