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The pageantry of the Men’s College World Series is enough to overwhelm some. Outside Charles Schwab Field’s center field fence, a large Ferris wheel anchors a fan zone. When standing at home plate, the structure dominates your field of vision. Half baseball, half party.
The holdovers from the Diamond Heels’ visit to Omaha in 2024 admit now that they may have gotten caught up in the pomp and circumstance of it all.
“I don’t really remember much of it,” Gavin Gallaher, who was a freshman starter on that 2024 team, said Thursday. “It just felt like we landed, had a couple of good practices, and then before you knew it, we were on the plane back home.”
“I learned a lot from ’24,” said head coach Scott Forbes. “If you want to come out here and you want to have success, my job as the head coach is to remind these guys why we are here.”
Why the Diamond Heels are here is not to ride that Ferris wheel. It’s not for a photo op. It’s not even to help UNC out in the Jell-O Shot Challenge at Rocco’s. It’s to win baseball games.
And in UNC’s recent trips to Omaha, they haven’t won a lot of baseball games. The program is just 2-4 at the College World Series in its last two appearances, each time winning its first game and then losing the next two to crash out. But here’s where this year’s appearance is unique: the 2018 and 2024 teams were the culminations of years-long ascensions to the grand stage of Omaha. The 2026 group feels this should be its third year in a row at the College World Series, and has starters like Gallaher and Jason DeCaro who have played on this stage.
“We’re out here on a business trip,” said Forbes. “I’ve been saying that to our staff. And I reminded them, ‘Hey, we’ve done this all year. Let’s don’t be happy.'”
And if any team has the right to not be satisfied with merely just getting here, it’s UNC. The Diamond Heels are the only repeat Omaha attendee across the last three editions of the College World Series: 23 out of a possible 24 spots have been one-timers.
23 different teams have advanced to the College World Series in the past 3 seasons. North Carolina is the ONLY repeat team.
S/O @_robanderson for the nugget. pic.twitter.com/5RhfNKveNm
— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7) June 8, 2026
Even more than that, UNC’s 13 College World Series trips without a national championship are the second-most of any program in the country, trailing only Florida State’s 24. This year, No. 5 Carolina sits as the highest-seeded team on its side of the bracket. Should the Diamond Heels escape the trio of No. 16 West Virginia, unseeded Troy and unseeded Ole Miss (UNC’s opponent Friday night), they’d surely be more than happy to watch the other foursome of No. 3 Georgia, No. 6 Texas, No. 7 Alabama and unseeded Oklahoma wear each other out before advancing to the best-of-three championship series.
The relatively unbalanced bracket has helped UNC to emerge as one of the betting favorites to take home the national championship.
“We’re the best team here,” said a confident Caden Glauber. “We’re just focused on ourselves. We’re in Omaha for a reason, and we’ve got to stay within ourselves.”
“Eventually you get somewhere, hopefully you’ll knock the door down,” said Forbes, who has been a part of nine of the program’s 13 College World Series trips, either as an assistant or as the head coach. “I’m stepping back and saying, ‘OK, how do we find a way to be even better when we’re there?'”
One of Forbes’ next lines was representative of someone who’s gotten within a whisker of the trophy, then seen another team hoist it. In short, it was representative of someone who’s watched a lot of Carolina baseball.
“Sometimes,” he said, “you do everything and it doesn’t happen.”
UNC’s next order of “business” will be making sure those things do happen this time around. Maybe then, the Diamond Heels will be happy to be in Omaha.
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Featured image via Chapel Hill Media Group/Chance Bragg
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‘Let’s Don’t Be Happy’: UNC Baseball Adopting ‘Business Trip’ Mentality at College World Series Chapelboro.com.
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