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With two outs in the top of the sixth inning and his team trailing Ole Miss 1-0, UNC starter Jason DeCaro found himself in a jam. The Rebels had put men in scoring position after a walk and a single, after which Owen Paino had advanced to second base on a throw to third. It wasn’t a solid fundamental play by UNC; baseball strategy decries allowing a baserunner an extra 90 feet on a hopeless throw.
Ole Miss had taken advantage of a mental mistake. And now the door was open for the Rebels to increase their slim lead.
It was not to be — DeCaro struck out Austin Fawley to end the inning. As he walked off the mound, DeCaro let out a roar, pumped his fist and asked for energy from his teammates.
Fire 'em up J lets go! Up to 8️⃣ Ks pic.twitter.com/Z80ttw1tYA
— Carolina Baseball (@DiamondHeels) June 13, 2026
In the break before the bottom of the inning, ESPN cameras captured the Diamond Heels holding an impromptu meeting in the dugout. To that point, UNC had managed just one hit against the Rebels’ Taylor Rabe.
Whatever was said in the huddle worked: Owen Hull led off the bottom of the sixth and blasted a game-tying solo home run to the opposite field, breathing life into what had been a feckless offense to that point. When asked what went on in the dugout, Hull wasn’t about to give anything away.
“That’s a secret,” he said. “But we’ve got our pitcher’s back. He was working out there today and we knew that we had to get his back.”
Back in the game with a 1-1 tie, UNC promptly fell behind again in the top of the seventh after the Rebels put together a two-out rally against DeCaro and Caden Glauber. Such a sequence would be deflating to many other baseball teams — fight back to tie the game after struggling mightily, only to see the deficit restored immediately against your best two arms. But Carolina was only at the Men’s College World Series thanks to late-inning magic. In the Diamond Heels’ minds, there was no reason why it couldn’t happen again.
“We know that we’re never out of the fight,” said Colin Hynek. “We don’t look at the scoreboard. We just keep playing, stick to our process and see where we’re at at the end of the game.”
In the bottom of the seventh, UNC manufactured runs in a way that has become a trademark for this year’s team — and a nightmare for opposing pitchers. Tyler Howe and Hynek each drew walks, then advanced to second and third base after Carter French dropped down a sacrifice bunt. A Jake Schaffner sacrifice fly scored Howe, and Hynek came home on a Gavin Gallaher single up the middle. Two runs on two walks, a bunt, a flyout and a ground ball. That’s Carolina baseball in the year 2026.
“We’ve got a really special offense,” Hull said. “And we’re gonna keep being gritty.”
The rally was a moment of redemption for Howe, who lost an Ole Miss fly ball in the sun in the third inning, and the ensuing double allowed the Rebels to score the game’s opening run.
“That’s tough,” head coach Scott Forbes said. “That sun is tough. The shadows are tough… we talk about next play mentality all the time. You have to have a really short memory in sports and move on to the next pitch, good or bad. Our guys have completely bought into that.”
It was Howe who again helped kickstart a rally in the eighth inning, doubling after Nicholson was hit by a pitch and putting men on second and third with two outs. That set the stage for Hynek to blast a three-run home run to left field, putting the capper on Carolina’s 6-2 win.
“The kid works his butt off,” Hynek said of Howe. “It’s not really a shock that that kid’s come up big. You look at some other big moments this year, that kid just kind of has a knack for it.”
Friday’s win marked the second consecutive game UNC has won after trailing in the seventh inning or later. Carolina likely wasn’t intimidated by the 2-1 deficit or the stage in Omaha; the Diamond Heels had stared down elimination against USC in front of the largest Super Regional TV audience ever last weekend and hadn’t flinched. A crowd of 24,000-plus at Charles Schwab Field? Small potatoes by comparison.
It’s a mindset which has defined UNC’s season to this point, a season which has now featured 51 wins — the most in a single year since 2013. Carolina lost its first ACC series of the season, then won its remaining nine. When including their Super Regional win against USC, the Diamond Heels have won three weekend series in which they dropped the opening game. There are no slam-dunk first-round picks on this year’s roster — Vance Honeycutt and Luke Stevenson aren’t walking through that door. And yet, Carolina is in the winner’s bracket at the College World Series.
“We go hard here,” Forbes said. “Our program has high standards, we have a great culture, but you’ve gotta work. And guys understand: if you don’t work, you’re not gonna make it. But when you choose to work and you’re disciplined, you reap the benefits.”
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Featured image via Associated Press/Vera Nieuwenhuis
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