Finally, as their season was on life support, North Carolina’s hitters came through in the game’s final two innings.
Gavin Gallaher and Johnny Castagnozzi – driven in by Colby Wilkerson and Alex Madera, respectively – scored the game-tying and go-ahead runs in the top of the ninth and 10th innings to put the fourth-overall-seeded Tar Heels ahead of LSU.
Dalton Pence then pitched one more solid inning of shutout ball, with the crowd on its feet, securing a 4-3 win for UNC over the reigning national champions. Pence spiked his glove into the dugout, screamed and pounded his chest after Vance Honeycutt caught a fly ball for the final out in centerfield.
Pence’s teammates mobbed him as the majority of the announced crowd of 4,026 fans at Boshamer Stadium went wild, celebrating the Tar Heels’ 13th regional title.
“It meant a lot to me,” Pence said. “This year has just been a special year… It was the best feeling I’ve felt in the world, probably. I wasn’t feeling anything in that moment. It was great.”
North Carolina (45-14) advances to the Super Regionals for the 11th time in program history. The Tar Heels will host West Virginia this weekend at the Bosh.
“I told our guys this morning, this is why you come to UNC, to play in games like this,” Tar Heels’ coach Scott Forbes said. “I feel like we had some of that Bosh magic tonight, and a lot of that was our crowd. When (Madera) got that hit, that might be the loudest I’ve ever heard Boshamer Stadium, and that’s just something that makes me smile.”
With UNC trailing 3-2, Gallaher led off the top of the ninth with a double and Wilkerson brought him home to tie the game with a single to shallow left field. The Tar Heels then left two runners on base, but kept connecting in the 10th. Castagnozzi blasted a ball to the right field wall and reached second base on an error, Gallaher was intentionally walked, and then Alex Madera slapped a single through the middle of the diamond to notch the go-ahead run, scoring Castagnozzi.
“When I got to 3-2, I just sold out for the fastball,” Madera said of his game-winning at-bat. “I just jumped on it and luckily hit it up the middle.”
“We wouldn’t have even been in that situation if it wasn’t for our pitchers,” Wilkerson added.
Before the ninth, UNC hadn’t scored since the first.
Honeycutt scored in the opening frame when Anthony Donofrio drew a bases-loaded walk, and Casey Cook scampered home as Alberto Osuna grounded into a double play. The runs gave some insurance to freshman Jason DeCaro, who was given the start by Forbes on two days’ rest in a high-stakes win-or-go-home contest. The 18-year-old 6-foot-5 righthander had just pitched four innings on Friday.
DeCaro tossed 27 pitches in the bottom of the first, allowing one run as former N.C. State slugger Tommy White scored when LSU’s Josh Pearson grounded out. DeCaro then gave up a solo homer in the bottom of the second to Jake Brown – a 403-foot shot that sailed over the right-center fence.
Matthew Matthijs relieved DeCaro in the third and allowed another LSU solo homer, this one hit 383 feet into right-center by first baseman Jared Jones. Matthijs soon settled in though, impressively retiring 11 consecutive LSU batters through the seventh inning. The sophom*ore righthander from Greenville wound up pitching a single-game career-high 4.1 innings, striking out three Tigers while allowing just the one run.
“He’s gotten so much better,” Forbes said of Matthijs. “He’s always been an ice water kid. We always felt like he would love the big moment.”
Meanwhile, UNC was struggling at the plate, too, failing to connect on the offerings from LSU’s Will Helmers, who struck out four batters and gave up just two hits, two walks and no runs through 5 2/3 innings of work.
Pence took the mound for UNC with the Tar Heels trailing, 3-2, midway through the seventh inning and picked up where Matthijs left off, retiring 11 of the 15 batters he faced. Pence pumped a fastball high in the strike zone, getting Paxton Kling swinging and missing to close the bottom of the ninth and force extra innings.
An argument could easily be made that Pence was the most important pitcher in regional play for UNC. The right-handed redshirt sophom*ore threw 117 pitches over 8 1/3 innings across three appearances, striking out 10 and allowing just three hits and three walks.
“He’s really good. They’ve got the pieces out of the bullpen. He’s got an elite arm,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said of Pence. “He can really throw the fastball where he wants to – up, down, both sides of the plate – and his secondary stuff was good enough tonight to get off. He made it really hard. We were trying to win the game in nine innings because he wasn’t giving anything up.”
This is the second time that UNC has made the Super Regionals under Forbes, who is in his fourth season at the helm since succeeding Mike Fox. The last two times UNC hosted Super Regionals, they were bested by SEC teams – Arkansas in 2022 and Auburn in 2019.
