UNC baseball rallies late, opens Men’s College World Series with win
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- Gavin Gallaher delivered the go-ahead two-out single in the bottom of the seventh.
- Jason DeCaro struck out nine batters over 6 2/3 innings, tying a season high.
- Freshman Caden Glauber earned the win after pitching 2 1/3 innings and is 11-0.
For all of Gavin Gallaher’s postseason heroics during his North Carolina career, they never came through in the Men’s College World Series.
Until his fourth at-bat on Friday night.
The junior second baseman, who was 0 for 15 in the MCWS, sat on a changeup and hit a two-out single to score the go-ahead run in the bottom of the seventh inning. Gallaher not only gave UNC (51-12-1) the lead but swung momentum in the Tar Heels’ favor.
No. 5 seed North Carolina defeated Ole Miss, 6-2, in the team’s opener in Omaha and set up a date with No. 16 West Virginia at 7 p.m. Sunday.
“Like Michael Jordan says, ‘There’s no fear when you’re prepared,’” UNC head coach Scott Forbes said. “The little birdie questioning things is when you don’t put in the work. But when you put in the work, the game comes, and you go out and play free and easy. And I feel like this group, for sure, puts in the work.”
After Gallaher’s big swing, his teammates came up clutch in the bottom of the eighth. Third baseman Cooper Nicholson reached base on a two-out hit by pitch and advanced to third on left fielder Tyler Howe’s second double of the game.
Catcher Colin Hynek capped off the scoring with a three-run home run 432 feet to left-center field, effectively putting the game out of reach for the Rebels (41-22).
The Tar Heels’ batting average has dipped as of late and they finished the game with a .185 batting average. But the hits came at timely moments. UNC hit .400 with runners on base and .333 with on two outs. After leaving 28 runners on base during its Super Regional, the team was pleased with its ability to capitalize this time around.
Gallaher’s hit and the late-game offense were important, but UNC’s solid pitching performance was huge as well.
“We know that we’re never out of the fight, especially with our pitching staff,” Hynek said. “That’s two games in a row that we’ve been pretty slow offensively until the end of the game, and they’ve just held it in there until we could finally break through.”
Junior Jason DeCaro went 6 and 2/3 innings and struck out nine batters, tying a season high. His nine Ks rank second in Carolina history for strikeouts in a Men’s College World Series game. DeCaro gave up five hits and walked a trio of Rebels.
Freshman Caden Glauber, coming off an 11-strikeout performance against Southern Cal in last weekend’s Super Regional, replaced DeCaro in the top of the seventh. The first batter he faced hit an RBI single to end the stalemate, but the run was charged to DeCaro.
Glauber looked comfortable on the mound, despite his youth, and picked up the win. He pitched 2 and 1/3 innings, giving up a trio of hits but was not tabbed with a run. Glauber is now 11-0 this season, and Carolina holds a 26-0 record when he has made an appearance.
“He’s one of the best pitchers in the country, so there’s no reason to not act like it,” Hynek said of Glauber. “Any time he’s on the mound, we trust him. As long as he’s himself, he’s pretty much unhittable.”
Ole Miss made things difficult for the majority of the game, despite what the final score might indicate.
The Rebels took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a pair of doubles. Right fielder Brayden Randle recorded a leadoff double after Carolina right fielder Tyler Howe lost the fly ball in the sun. Randle’s hit landed inside the foul line, becoming the first Ole Miss runner in scoring position. Second baseman Dom Decker drove in the first run of the game on an RBI double.
“That sun is tough. Shadows are tough. We were talking about telling our guys, ‘Hang in there, the shadows are tough, it’s going to be hard to hit,’” Forbes said. “But that’s why (Howe’s) been able to play every day as a freshman. He’s steady. He’s an old-school baseball player. He can play all over the field. He’s not intimidated. And we talk about the next-play mentality all the time, and you have to have a really short memory in sports and move on to the next pitch, good or bad. And our guys have completely bought into that.”
Decker hit another two-out double in the top of the seventh, finding a gap in left-center field to put pressure on the Tar Heel defense and set up another scoring play.
Meanwhile, Ole Miss’ Taylor Rabe threw 5 and 2/3 innings and gave up one run and two hits. The efficient righty struck out seven but walked a season-high four batters. He entered the game with only 11 walks this season. He came out of the game after giving up a home run to junior center fielder Owen Hull.
The Tar Heels’ best hitter, Hull started the game 0 for 2 at the plate with two strikeouts. The third time through the lineup, Hull hit Rabe’s pitch 395 feet into a section of celebratory Carolina fans in the outfield bleachers. His 101.8 mph home run tied the game at 1-1, and moved Hull to third in program history with 82 RBI.
Forbes said the coaching staff reminded the team, before its flurry of offense, to battle. Find a way to get on base and don’t allow the pitchers, especially Rabe, to put together quick innings. That keeps the opposing arms off balance and limits their ability to settle into a rhythm.
“We also knew with that type of arm, we’re going to strike out some, and we saw that early,” Forbes said. “But as (Rabe) was getting his pitch count up — instead of it being 96, 98, he might have even touched 99 — it was a little bit lower, and that gave us a better shot on his fastball.”
After the pitching change, Rabe’s replacements could not maintain the same level of control on the mound. They gave up five of Carolina’s six runs, while only striking out a pair.
“Pitching duel, good night — their guy was on, our guy was on. It was hard to do anything offensively for both teams,” Forbes said. “They have a heck of a team. Shout-out to them for being here. Well-coached, physical and some really, really good arms that we had to face today. Our guys kept hanging around, piecing it together. Got a little bit better as we went along.”
This story was originally published June 12, 2026 at 10:35 PM with the headline "UNC baseball rallies late, opens Men’s College World Series with win."
