OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Scott Forbes had just wrapped up a College World Series news conference Friday when Skip Johnson walked into the room to pose with him for an annual picture of the head coaches next to the national championship trophy, a longtime tradition the day before the start of the finals.
“Hey, buddy,” UNC’s Forbes said, beaming and extending his hand to the Oklahoma coach.
“You thought we were going to fight?” Johnson said, turning to reporters.
The college baseball lifers have known each other for decades, since they spent long days and nights scouting the same talent showcases and engaging in recruiting battles during long runs as assistants.
“I always thought if we met up together,” Forbes told Johnson, “we’d be hunting.”
Oh, they’re hunting together all right.
UNC will be looking for its first national title in baseball and Oklahoma for its third when the schools square off in Game 1 of the best-of-three series at Charles Schwab Field on Saturday night.
The Tar Heels and Sooners have taken different routes to reach the same destination.
UNC (53-12-1) has lost consecutive games just once, in early March, and has been ranked no lower than No. 4 by D1Baseball.com the last two months.
Oklahoma (41-22) was ranked as high as No. 8 and then lost six of nine series in Southeastern Conference play. The Sooners finished 11th in the SEC and were unranked when they entered the national tournament off losses in seven of nine games.
“I think the SEC just offers a great preparation, period, for this type of tournament,” OU’s Trey Gambill said. “There’s no breaks. Just like in this tournament, you’re not playing any bad teams. You’re not playing any mediocre teams. You’re playing the best of the best. So the SEC just prepared us for always being ready to put our best out there.”
Both teams went 3-0 in CWS bracket play. The Tar Heels have won five straight, and the Sooners are on a season-best eight-game streak.
The Game 1 pitching matchup pits Tar Heel ace Jason DeCaro (11-2) against 6-foot-6, 237-pound left-hander Cord Rager (6-3), one of three freshman starters for the Sooners. DeCaro went 6 2/3 innings and struck out nine in UNC’s 6-2 win over Mississippi last Friday. Rager walked none and struck out eight in seven innings of a 9-0 win over Alabama last Saturday.
SEC streak on line
Oklahoma will be going for the Southeastern Conference’s seventh straight national title and 18th overall, which would tie the Pac-12 for most.
The SEC is assured of having the champion, runner-up or both for the 20th time since 2000. The Sooners are the 10th different SEC team to reach the finals over that span.
ACC’s first finals since 2015
UNC is the first Atlantic Coast Conference team to make the CWS finals since Virginia in 2015.
The Tar Heels are trying to become the third ACC program to win a national title in baseball. Wake Forest won the first in 1955 and Virginia the second in 2015.
UNC (2006-07, 2026) and Virginia (2014-15) are the only ACC programs to play in the finals since the best-of-three format started in 2003.
Power surge
DeCaro will face a Sooners team that’s averaging 10.4 runs per game with 22 homers during their eight-game win streak. They’ve gone deep eight times in the CWS, including five in an 11-4 win over Georgia on Wednesday. OU has 45 homers in its 20 games since May 1 after hitting 46 homers in its first 43.
“What Jason’s going to do is what he’s been doing,” Forbes said. “We don’t care what the offense has been, what they’re doing, how hot they are. He’s going to go right after them with his stuff. You start being tentative, you start getting negative counts, then that offense gets even better.”
Call him K-den
UNC is 28-0 when Caden Glauber pitches. The freshman leads the Tar Heels with 106 strikeouts and 13.76 per nine innings, and he has allowed one run in 5 1/3 innings over three CWS games.
Another freshman reliever, lefty Jackson Rose, pitched 4 1/3 innings of shutout relief in a 12-7 win over West Virginia and has a 2.15 ERA over 50 2/3 innings this season.
___