Diamond Heels Wont Dwell on the Past Remain Ready for Supers
CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina hosts Southern California in the Chapel Hill Super Regional series this weekend, looking for its 13th College World Series appearance.
The Trojans (47-16) present a major challenge, possessing an elite pitching staff and an offense that was red hot in the College Station Regional. The Tar Heels (48-11-1) come in with plenty of momentum themselves, having advanced out of the Chapel Hill Regional with a 3-0 record.
Ahead of the weekend series, UNC head coach Scott Forbes, pitcher Jason DeCaro, and second baseman Gavin Gallaher spoke with the media:
Scott Forbes
*Forbes has led the Tar Heels to three straight Super Regional appearances, so he knows how to get his guys ready for the big games. His key is not to dwell on the past, including a heartbreaking two-game skid to end the season against Arizona last year.
"You're elated, and you also can be deflated. And you have great wins, you have tough losses. I'm a firm believer that failure is not failure in my mind. But losing in a tough way like that or at any time, that's happened to us before. And a lot of times, that's set up more success down the road.
"But on the other side of that, we talk about being process-oriented. We talk about today, we talk about learning from the past, making every day your masterpiece, per John Wooden. So we don't really dwell on it at all. We just learn from it and go on."
*Following an exceptional 2025 season, Forbes and company only improved, putting themselves back in the same spot they bowed out of last year. This time, they go into it as the betting favorite to win the whole thing.
The one and two-seeds couldn't make it out of their respective regionals, so the Tar Heels and their program consistency have a lot of eyes on them. Forbes talked about what has allowed UNC such great success over the last few years.
"We do all we can to focus on what we do and what we do well. I do think that being process-oriented, having great culture, having high standards, accountability, discipline–I think that gives you a chance to hopefully be in this position as much as possible."
*Before the team can compete on the biggest stage in college baseball, though, it has to get past a tough USC squad–one that throws one of the best arms in the country. Mason Edwards leads the nation in strikeouts and ranks second in ERA.
Forbes spoke about what it takes to face a dominant arm like that and come out on top.
"I mean, number one, we aren't going to make it about Mason Edwards. We're going to make it about us. We're going to get in the box, we're going to strap it on, and we're going to compete. That's got to be number one.
"You do have to have an approach. You have to have an idea of what you're trying to do. But if you have a million things going through your head as a hitter, you're already defeated. So I tell our guys this time of year, you faced everything. This league's prepared you for everything.
"We face lefties, righties, velocity, ride, sink. So we just try not to get too caught up in the other guy. We're going to know what his strengths are. We're going to hopefully know what his weaknesses are. But if a guy like that is on, you've just got to keep battling. You've got to have our guy, who I think is a stud as well, match him. You've got to make plays defensively. But I'll put my chips on our guys."
Jason DeCaro
*DeCaro enters the weekend with two of his worst 2026 performances behind him in the ACC Tournament and the Chapel Hill Regional. His main focus now is improving his two-strike pitches, in hopes of returning to peak performance for this pivotal series.
"I feel like, as a pitching staff, as a whole, we do a really good job of getting ahead. Sometimes you might get beaten in those two-strike counts. And [Coach Gaines] kind of laid it out as: you did the hard part already, you got two strikes. So don't make it hard on yourself, and just execute a pitch, and you'll get the results that you want. So really just hammering that home, and no matter who the opponent is, we'll find success if we can execute that."
*DeCaro's biggest advantage is having been here before. The junior righty tossed in the previous two Chapel Hill Super Regionals.
*He spoke about what he learned from those experiences.
"I feel like you're going out there, and obviously you wanna have success in your own right, but the most important thing at this time of the year is that we're winning games. So it's kind of pushing your own ego aside and just pulling for your teammates. When you're out there, it's just trying to give the team the best chance to win."
DeCaro is a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist for his terrific pitching this year, so the Tar Heels will need him back in full force to outduel a talented USC roster.
Gavin Gallaher
*The Tar Heel offense is rolling in May, and team captain Gallaher is a major part of that. He spoke about how he has seen the offense get better over the course of the year.
"These guys, everybody works so hard, and at the beginning of the season, maybe there were a bunch of guys that didn't have their best stuff. But you just see everybody just shows up every day, everybody's consistent, and they just put in the work. It's a lot of stuff that's behind the scenes that doesn't really get seen, but when guys hit the box, sometimes you can just tell it kind of looks like a watermelon [to them]."
*Gallaher was also on that 2025 roster that lost to Arizona. UNC won 18-2 in game one, then dropped two straight to end the season with 10-8 and 3-2 losses. The second baseman reflected on what that experience taught him.
"It doesn't matter what you did in game one; the job's not finished until it's finished. So you can win game one, one to nothing, you can win game one, 18 to two, but you gotta show up the next day ready to play just as much as you were the first day."
*Gallaher has continued his yearly tendency of playing his best baseball all season in the tournament. With five hits and three RBI in the postseason so far, he looks to remain a huge part of the offense this weekend.
The Tar Heels begin the Chapel Hill Super Regional against the Trojans at 3 p.m. on Friday.
