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 UNC 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.
An offense that batted .217 with just four extra-base hits in its first two CWS games went into overdrive against the Mountaineers. UNC 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.”
UNC 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.
Tar Heels 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 UNC 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.”