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06/17 17:36 CDT North Carolina will head to the CWS finals for 1st time since
2007 after knocking out West Virginia
North Carolina will head to the CWS finals for 1st time since 2007 after
knocking out West Virginia
By ERIC OLSON
AP Sports Writer
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) --- Owen Hull had a triple and two doubles among his four
hits, Gavin Gallaher had four hits and four RBIs and North Carolina rolled past
West Virginia 12-7 on Wednesday to advance to the College World Series finals
for the first time since 2007.
The Tar Heels (53-12-1) went 3-0 in bracket play and will play for their first
national championship in baseball starting Saturday in the best-of-three finals
against Oklahoma or Georgia.
West Virginia (47-17) was 2-2 in its first CWS appearance with both losses to
the Tar Heels.
A North Carolina offense that batted .217 with just four extra-base hits in its
first two CWS games went into overdrive against the Mountaineers. Carolina was
8 for 10 with runners in scoring position, had five extra-base hits and amassed
its most runs and hits (16) in nine NCAA Tournament games.
"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,'" Tar Heels coach Scott Forbes
said. "So thankfully that happened."
Hull was a home run shy of becoming the second player in three days to hit for
the cycle. Texas' Adrian Rodriguez did it Monday against Alabama. Hull had an
RBI double in the first inning, a single in the third, RBI double in the fourth
and a triple in the sixth.
"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," Hull said. "That's what we
focused on, and being default aggressive. I think it worked out pretty well."
Carolina scored twice in the first inning off Chansen Cole (10-2) and Cooper
Nicholson's two-run triple put the Tar Heels up 5-1 in the third. They were
ahead 12-1 before the Mountaineers began whittling into the lead.
Carolina starter Folger Boaz labored through a 28-pitch first inning, giving up
two singles and a walk, and he didn't come out for the second. Jackson Rose
(5-0) pitched 4 1/3 innings of shutout relief and gave the ball to Matthew
Matthijs with a nine-run lead.
West Virginia scored five runs on five hits and two walks in the seventh, all
with two outs, and pulled within 12-6 when catcher Colin Hynek had a pitch by
new reliever Caden Glauber get past him. Gavin Kelly homered in the eighth, his
second of the CWS and 19th of the season, to make it a five-run game.
"You never want to go down," Mountaineers coach Steve Sabins said. "If you're
going to go down, for me, being down 12-1 and scratching and clawing and
fighting and running out of gas and giving literally everything that you have
left in the tank to compete is poetic for me."
Forbes said he went into the game prepared to pull out all of the stops to win
Wednesday even if it meant sending ace starter Jason DeCaro to the mound in
relief. That wasn't necessary, though West Virginia continued to be relentless
even when it was down double digits.
Forbes was pitching coach on the 2006 and ?07 Carolina teams that went to the
finals, and he said experience has taught him there is great value in having
two days' rest instead of one before the finals.
"We're playing in the national championship, and I'm excited for these guys,"
Forbes said. "I'll just keep jumping on their backs and watch them when we
start playing on Saturday."
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This story has been corrected to add a tie to North Carolina's record.
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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
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