OMAHA, Neb. – For the first time in 19 years, the North Carolina Tar Heels will play for a national championship at the Men’s College World Series.
Behind a 4-for-5 performance from Gavin Gallaher, who drove in four runs, and a 4-for-5 day from Owen Hull, who had RBI doubles in the first and fourth innings and finished a homer short of the cycle, the Tar Heels made short work of the West Virginia Mountaineers, beating them 12-7 to advance to the championship series, which begins on Saturday night at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.
“We were joking before the game today, like, man, we need to have one of those games where we get 15 hits and score some runs. So thankfully that happened,” said UNC head coach Scott Forbes. “… Obviously we had one bad inning, but I don’t care about that bad inning, I could care less. We’re playing in the national championship. And I’m excited for these guys. And I’ll just keep jumping on their backs and watch them when we start playing on Saturday.”
Jake Schaffner led off the game for the Tar Heels by drawing a walk on five pitches, then scored when Owen Hull doubled off the wall in the right centerfield gap to give UNC a lead before the Mountaineers had retired a batter. With Erik Paulsen at the plate, Hull stole third and then scored when the throw from West Virginia catcher Matthew Graveline went into left field.
West Virginia got one back in the bottom of the first as North Carolina starter Folger Boaz struggled with command, issuing a lead-off walk to Armani Guzman. Gavin Kelly followed Guzman with a single, and a two-out single by Matthew Graveline scored Guzman from third to make it 2-1.
Boaz was lifted from the game for Jackson Rose after one inning, and Rose kept West Virginia off the board for 4 1/3 innings.
“It’s great being able to pitch out here as a freshman and be able to wear Carolina, it’s like a dream to be honest,” Rose said. “And then playing with these guys in the field, you know if you get ahead, you don’t have to worry about the defensive side. And it’s awesome.”
West Virginia starter Chancen Cole again walked Schaffner to start the third, and the Tar Heels leadoff man moved to second on a single by Owen Hull and then scored on another single by Gavin Gallaher to give North Carolina a 3-1 lead, chasing Cole from the game after two innings.
Ian Korn entered the game for West Virginia, and Erik Paulsen lofted his third pitch high in the air midway down the left field line, where shortstop Matt Ineich and left fielder gave chase, but the wind-blown pop-up somehow landed in fair territory for a single. Cooper Nicholson then tripled off the wall in right center to score Gallaher and Paulsen and make it 5-1.
Owen Hull’s one-out RBI double in the fourth scored Carter French and gave the Heels runners at second and third, and a single by Gallaher scored Schaffner and Hull to make it 8-1.
Hull drove in a pair of runs and had a pair of doubles, but was cagey about what knowledge of West Virginia’s pitchers he took into the game.
“Scouting report’s a secret, but as a lineup as a whole we try to stick to the process of not letting our at-bats carry into each other,” Hull said, the plate magician unwilling to reveal his secrets. “The first thing that coach told us in our pregame meeting out in the outfield was that we want our compete factor at the top. And that’s what we focused on and being default aggressive. So those were the two things that we really focused on today, and I think it worked out pretty well.”
Hull continued to torment the Mountaineers pitchers, ripping a two-out triple into the right field corner in the sixth and then scoring on a single by Gavin Gallaher, chasing Korn after 3 1/3 innings that saw him give up six runs, five of them earned, on seven hits. Reese Bassinger entered the game for West Virginia and gave up a single to Erik Paulsen on his second pitch that scored Gallaher and make it 10-1.
West Virginia threatened in the sixth, loading the bases with one out when Matt Ineich drew a one-out walk. Tar Heels head coach Scott Forbes brought in Matthew Mathijs to face Brock Wills, who lined Mathijs’ first pitch right to Gallaher at second base, and Gallaher tossed it to Schaffner covering second for an inning-ending double play.
They finally broke through in the seventh, getting five runs with two outs to cut the North Carolina lead to 12-6, and Gain Kelly’s 19th homer of the year, a solo shot with two outs in the eighth got the Mountaineers closer, but it was too little, too late.
West Virginia finishes the year 47-17, having made their first trip to Omaha a year after their first trip to a Super Regional, having done so with a mix of homegrown players and transfers, including four from Division II.
“I think athleticism, and then mentally strong kids with plus makeup. So if you have those things, you’re probably always going to be in the ball game,” West Virginia head coach Steve Sabins said when asked what traits of this team he’d try to bring to team’s going forward. “There’s so much adversity and there’s so many ups and downs. So if we can find the right kids that love to work, that are athletic, that want to be here that don’t necessarily believe that the grass is greener, those are the kids that you have a chance to win championships with.”
North Carolina returns to the championship series for the first time since 2007, when Forbes was in his second season as the Tar Heels’ pitching coach and North Carolina lost its second consecutive championship series appearance to Oregon State.
They got there the easy way, having won three straight games to earn their berth in the championship.
“I told the coaches today, listen, I’m going for it,” Forbes said. “It’s funny you said that because my wife was, we were talking about being in Omaha, and she remembers the first year very much because we had some off days. And then she also remembers ’07 because we lost and it just felt like we were playing every single day to get back to the national championship.
“So you want to recover. You want to have a little bit of rest. The guys used these last two days really well, they’re focused. And I’ve already done it. You know I believed that we were going to win today. And we have a plan and we’ll stay with that plan the next two days to be ready to play Saturday.”
Photo: North Carolina infielder Owen Hull (8) during an NCAA baseball College World Series game against Mississippi, Friday, June 12, 2026 in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Vera Nieuwenhuis)
