Arizona has broken through and returned to the Super Regionals, where it will play a best-of-3 series at North Carolina for a spot in the College World Series.
The Tar Heels (45-13) earned the No. 5 national seed after finishing third in the ACC regular season standings before winning the conference tournament. They’ve lost only two weekend series, both in March, and feature one of the best starting rotations in college baseball.
To better understand this UNC squad, we reached out to Akil Guruparan of SB Nation sister site Tar Heel Blog for some insight and a series prediction. Below are his loquacious answers to our trite questions:
AZ Desert Swarm: North Carolina is hosting Super Regionals for the second year in a row after making the College World Series in 2024. What’s the most notable difference between last season’s Tar Heels and the current squad?
Akil Guruparan: “Well, last year’s team raked. They set a program record for home runs with 115 and had threats to go yard from 1 to 7, and that helped them get to Omaha even as they struggled to make consistent contact throughout the postseason. This year’s Heels have a little bit less pop—I think the home run count is around 80 after the regional—and average about a run less per game than the 2024 version, and rely more on station-to-station baseball to score. They steal and run bases more aggressively, have a knack for punishing free passes and defensive errors, and are really good at putting up runs immediately after getting scored on. I’d pick last year’s offense to put together a 9th-inning rally, but this year’s to respond after the other team put up a crooked number in, like, the third.”
Who are the top hitters in the order that Arizona should be most concerned about? What is this offense best known for?
“Like I said earlier, this is an offense that is defined by situational hitting and the pressure they put on defenses. An outrageous amount of the runs they got in the Chapel Hill Regional were batted in with two outs, and a lot of them came after errors. Against Oklahoma the first time, for example, they put up a five-spot in the first inning, all with two outs, after leadoff man Kane Kepley reached on an error by the third baseman. They will test outfielders’ arms on extra base hits, beat out throws for infield singles, and all in all find ways to get free 90s.
“As for individual players, I’ll link my UNC preview I wrote before regionals, where I have a brief-ish breakdown of everybody in the lineup. Here are things I’d say and guys I’d highlight in addition:
“Third baseman Gavin Gallaher holds maybe the hottest bat in the country right now—I haven’t checked, but I can’t imagine there are too many guys who had a regional better than 13 for 18 with three home runs, seven XBH and 10 RBI. He’s been seeing a beach ball since the calendar turned to May. He bats cleanup and just seems to do everything right at the plate.
“Catcher Luke Stevenson was UNC’s offensive leader in the regular season but had a pretty dismal regional. We’re looking for him to break out of a slump; I think he’s something like 4 of 24 in the last two weeks. Granted, two of those hits were home runs in the ACC Tournament.
“Sam Angelo was the DH for all regional games, and he paid that decision off, going 5 for 13 with two homers and two walks on the weekend. He apparently made an adjustment to his stance and it resulted in a lot of solid contact and looks more comfortable at the plate than he has all season.”
UNC has the third-best ERA in the country at 3.39, is strong across the board in almost every pitching category and has a trio of starters who are 27-7. What does a ‘bad’ outing look like for this staff, and what would it take for Arizona to beat it?
“I think it’s brutally hard to try and beat this UNC staff twice in three games. I haven’t seen Jake Knapp have a bad outing yet and he’s gone into at least the 8th inning in each of his last five starts, which conserves the bullpen. So you have to chase Jason DeCaro and Aidan Haugh by working counts deep and making them walk you, then you have (relievers) Ryan Lynch and Walker McDuffie to deal with, who have the highest strikeout percentages on the team and have been making dudes look like they’ve never seen a slider before all season long.
DeCaro has put together a string of quality starts lately and looks more like the preseason All-American we were expecting, but Haugh has been cold for a month-plus: he threw over 100 pitches in just 3.2 innings against Oklahoma on Sunday, allowing four walks and four hits (but just two runs). After them, there are a few decent arms left, but they’re much more hittable and if you’re seeing a lot of a guy like Camron Seagraves, Cale Bolton, Olin Johnson or Folger Boaz, then either it’s a UNC blowout or you’re in a pretty good spot, comparatively.”
Scott Forbes is in his fifth season as head coach but has been with the program for 20 years. He’s made the NCAA Tournament every season, with three Supers and one trip to Omaha. What has made him so successful, and is there any worry another school might try to swoop in and take him?
“The thing to know about Scott Forbes is that during the season he makes weekly podcast appearances for 247Sports’ UNC site, which is to say an outlet unaffiliated with the team and program, and gives insightful, generous, and honest answers about the game of baseball, the job of coaching, and the guys on his roster. I’m a firm believer that the best coaches are the ones who will inevitably teach you something about their game if you just let them talk enough, and I absolutely think Forbes is one of those. His success these last two years with two wildly different offenses has been really impressive and makes it seem to me like he just gets baseball and lets his rosters dictate the style of play rather than forcing specific visions and ending up with square peg-round hole situations. He’s had a lot more impactful transfers in than he’s had guys transfer out, which speaks to his skill at building and managing the culture.
“After the Brian O’Connor news (Editor’s note: Virginia’s coach of 20-plus years took the Mississippi State job), maybe you can’t call anybody not in the SEC a lifer, but Forbes feels like a UNC lifer all the same. His mentor Mike Fox is a UNC legend, he grew up in North Carolina less than an hour from campus, basically his entire coaching career has been in Chapel Hill, and he seems to genuinely appreciate the school: its academics and campus culture, other sports programs, the whole nine.”
What is the environment like at Boshamer Stadium? How does it play? Arizona just came from a regional at a small field and hit 15 home runs, should it be trying to swing for the fences here
“First of all, the Bosh is just a gorgeous ballpark. Every time I’ve tuned into postseason baseball being played somewhere else, I feel spoiled by how awesome Boshamer Stadium just looks, in person and on TV. I know it’s not relevant to your question, but I feel the need to say it nonetheless. Last year’s Regional and Super Regional were by far the most electric environment I’d seen at the Bosh since I started seriously following this team in 2017, but that was a special cocktail of a great team, a couple of opposing fanbases that traveled really well, and ridiculously heightened drama on the field. It was really important for the program that Forbes maintain that momentum to turn last year’s first-time fans into returners and regulars, and based on the ticket sale numbers and the crowds this past weekend, he was pretty successful. It’s probably not going to be the most raucous crowd you’ve seen, but it’s been pretty passionate.
“I honestly don’t really know how Boshamer plays compared to other parks. It’s definitely not a launching pad like PK Park or Wake Forest’s stadium, but it feels maybe a little more hitter-friendly than pitcher-friendly—don’t quote me on that, though. I will say that righties who can go oppo have a really good time in Chapel Hill, because the wall cuts in sharply from center to right-center. I don’t think it’s the kind of park that should change your offensive approach, but honestly I’d probably say that about most parks.”
Prediction time. Does Arizona come into Chapel Hill and steal a CWS bid or does UNC make it back to Omaha? Give us a series prediction.
“In a best-of-3 series, I’m picking this UNC team over maybe anybody in the country. I feel like Jake Knapp is an automatic win until proven otherwise and the quality arms left for the other 18 innings give them a great starting point, and the offense has been good and clutch enough to not let them down. With a week of rest, I think this Super looks pretty similar to the last one UNC played: two pretty tight games where the Heels come out on top.”
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