Chapel Thrills! UNC baseball stuns USC with late rally to earn trip to Omaha

The Boshamer Stadium crowd rose to its feet in the bottom of the ninth inning — hoping the Tar Heels could muster one run to avoid elimination. And for a second, it appeared third baseman Cooper Nicholson had answered their prayers with a single swing of the bat.

Ooohs and aaahs faded into groans as the ball he launched deep to left field traveled, and traveled some more, and then curved wide of the foul pole. Nicholson was halfway to first base when he stopped and bent over, throwing his hands on his knees and hanging his head.

But Nicholson soon found his way on with a walk, was advanced to third base on a single from Carter French and scored off a sac fly from leadoff batter Jake Schaffner to tie the game.

Then junior second baseman Gavin Gallaher drew a walk, bringing center fielder Owen Hull — the Tar Heels’ hottest batter of the game — to the plate. And on his fourth double of the day, Hull drove in French and the home crowd erupted once again.

There would be no groans this time.

The No. 5 overall seed UNC baseball team earned its 13th trip to the College World Series in walk-off fashion with a 4-3 win over USC in a winner-take-all Chapel Hill Super Regional Game 3 on Sunday. This is the second time in three years the Tar Heels (50-12-1) have made the trip to Omaha.

Hull led the Tar Heels — who struggled with runners in scoring position all weekend — with four hits. All of them were doubles, and half came in the final two innings.

In the bottom of the eighth inning with two outs, Hull launched his third double of the day and was followed by an RBI double from Macon Winslow to bring North Carolina within a run of the Trojans.

UNC coach Scott Forbes put sophomore Perry Hargett in the game to pinch run for Winslow at second. North Carolina first baseman Erik Paulsen was promptly plunked, putting Tar Heels on first and second base with Colin Hynek up to bat.

A wild pitch moved UNC’s runners to third and second, but Hynek struck out swinging to end the inning. It was a familiar outcome at Boshamer Stadium this weekend: the Tar Heels stranded 28 runners over the course of the Super Regional.

But Hull made sure that number didn’t climb any higher in the ninth.

On the other side of the ball, freshman right-handed pitcher Caden Glauber earned the start over junior lefty Folger Boaz.

The third start of the 18-year-old’s college career began on rocky footing, as Glauber gave up back-to-back hits — a single to junior Adrian Lopez and then a double to sophomore Augie Lopez — and then balked to send Adrian Lopez home.

By the top of the sixth, Glauber had recorded nine strikeouts — his career-best performance. The nine strikeouts also tied the single-game record for UNC’s pitchers this spring. The other two Tar Heel pitchers to reach that mark were Jason DeCaro against Notre Dame and Ryan Lynch against Duke.

Glauber kept dealing into the seventh inning. He finished with 11 strikeouts — the most for any North Carolina pitcher this season — in the longest outing of his career. It marked the most strikeouts by a UNC pitcher in an NCAA Tournament game since Patrick Johnson recorded 11 against James Madison in 2011.

But Glauber also gave up two crucial home runs in the fourth and fifth inning.

The Tar Heels got on the board in the bottom of the third when Hull’s double down the right field line scored a speedy Jake Schaffner from first base. That notched the game at 1-1, but the tie didn’t last long.

USC’s Kevin Takeuchi homered to left field in the fourth inning and Andrew Lamb jacked another solo home run — this one to deep right field — to put the Trojans up 3-1 entering the bottom of the fifth inning. The Tar Heels cut their deficit to one run in the top of the eighth before earning two more runs in the final frame.

Jackson Rose took over in relief of Glauber in the eighth inning and the freshman recorded two outs in that frame and another in the ninth. Walker McDuffie, UNC’s go-to reliever, entered the game in the top of the ninth to record the last two outs.

This is the first time the Tar Heels have advanced to Omaha after dropping Game 1 of the Super Regionals.

North Carolina lost Game 1 of the Chapel Hill Super Regional, 9-5, on Friday before winning Game 2, 4-0, behind DeCaro’s complete game shutout on Saturday.

The Tar Heels’ Game 3 win will send UNC to its 13th College World Series in program history and second under Forbes. The Tar Heels have made nine appearances in Omaha since 2006 — eight of those trips coming when North Carolina hosted the Supers itself.

This story was originally published June 7, 2026 at 5:57 PM.