UNC baseball wants one thing — the national title. ‘That’s all we’ve talked about’
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- The Tar Heels held a sendoff at Boshamer Stadium before leaving for Omaha.
- The No. 5 Tar Heels begin Friday at 7 p.m. against Ole Miss in Omaha.
- Carolina reached MCWS for the second time in three seasons with a 50-12-1 record.
North Carolina head baseball coach Scott Forbes, with UNC memorabilia and displays as his backdrop, stood in the program’s Hall of Honor at Boshamer Stadium on Wednesday before the team left for Omaha, Nebraska and the Men’s College World Series.
His first comment was not about the team’s trip, nor was it about the ninth-inning comeback in Game 3 of the Super Regional. It was about the air conditioning.
“Feels good in here,” Forbes said. “Thank you for doing [the press conference] in here. It’s smoking outside.”
Chapel Hill was 80 degrees and sunny with 71% humidity during the team’s sendoff. Weather in Omaha is expected to feel similar.
It’s a privilege, however, for teams to feel the sticky heat this time of year. This is what they sacrifice for, what they dream about — a chance to play for the title.
“This is a unique business trip. A lot of times on business trips, you may not exactly love where you’re going to be, but we’re going to love where we are,” Forbes said. “But we also know what we’re going out there for. The better you play, the more you win, the longer you get to enjoy where you’re going to be. We’re going out there to try to win, try to win a national championship.”
The Tar Heels begin their title chase at 7 p.m. Friday when they face a scrappy Ole Miss team that went on the road to sweep the Lincoln Regional and Auburn Super Regional. The Rebels, who are making their seventh trip to Omaha, were one of three unseeded teams to make the MCWS.
UNC baseball in the 2026 Super Regional
The Tar Heels swept the Chapel Hill regional before a nerve-wracking Super Regional. UNC led Southern Cal 5-1 after five innings in Game 1 but fell to the Trojans after a sixth-inning grand slam allowed USC to take the lead. Jason DeCaro’s complete performance in Game 2 propelled the Heels to a 4-0 win, forcing the rubber match.
UNC, trailing by a run in the bottom of the ninth, tied the game on a sacrifice fly before a walk-off RBI double pushed Carolina to a 4-3 win — and into Omaha, where it wants to end every season.
Carolina (50-12-1) is making its second trip to Omaha under Forbes, with both trips in the last three seasons. The team has two additional wins and the same ACC record (22-8) as the 2024 team.
“My brain thinks when you say we’ve been to Omaha the last two out of three years, we should have went the last three out of three,” Forbes said, referring to the 2025 Super Regional loss to Arizona. “But, it doesn’t surprise me with this team.”
The No. 5 Tar Heels are the second-highest seed still remaining in the tournament after UCLA, Georgia Tech and Auburn failed to make the final eight and has, arguably, the favorable path to the championship series. Unseeded Troy and No. 16 West Virginia are the other two opponents in its side of the bracket, while No. 3 Georgia, No. 6 Texas, No. 7 Alabama and unseeded Oklahoma are on the other.
The Tar Heels in the College World Series in Omaha
This is UNC’s ninth trip to Omaha in the past 20 years, since Forbes re-joined the staff in 2006. (He was an assistant from 1999 to 2002.) The program ties Florida for the most appearances in the past two decades, but the Tar Heels have never won it all.
The Tar Heels were College World Series runners-up in 2006 and 2007, falling to Oregon State both seasons, and have not been in that position since. They desperately want that to change and believe it’s possible to take the next step. So do their supporters who weathered the toasty conditions and cheered as UNC’s bus left the Bosh.
“This year we just started with the Skip Bertman (legendary LSU baseball coach) saying, ‘Anything you vividly imagine, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon must come to pass,’” Forbes said. “That doesn’t mean it’s always going to, but you have to believe it’s going to, number one, and then you got to go to work and try to make it happen. That’s all we’ve talked about — winning the national championship, and nothing else.”
This story was originally published June 10, 2026 at 1:52 PM.
