After one of the most gut-wrenching losses of his life, Scott Forbes had to turn his frown upside down. Because just one day removed from the end of the Diamond Heels’ 2025 season, Forbes’ program was hosting a key transfer portal target.
Welcome to the new world of college athletics.
“We lose to Arizona on Sunday. He’s scheduled to visit on Monday,” Forbes remembered at the team’s media day Tuesday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium. “So obviously, you know what we’re hoping. That we’re celebrating, we’re happy-go-lucky, we’re excited. And it just didn’t happen that way. So you have to be able to flip that switch.”
Even while Forbes’ 2025 team was winning games, he had seen the writing on the wall: UNC was set to lose nearly its entire starting lineup during the offseason. And once Arizona advanced to Omaha, the collegiate careers of stars such as Luke Stevenson, Jackson Van De Brake and Kane Kepley came to an end. Between graduations and draft entries, Carolina lost seven of its nine starting hitters from its final Super Regional game. Of those two returners – Gavin Gallaher and Carter French – only Gallaher projects as an Opening Day starter this year.
But for Forbes, who went through this same exercise after his 2024 team reached the College World Series in Omaha, says the year-to-year turnover is simply the cost of doing business as a competitive program.
“The more talent you have, the more you’re gonna lose. Now more than ever,” Forbes said. “If they’re here, they’re gonna get drafted, hopefully high. Because if they get drafted high, that means they played well and that means we played well.”
Forbes hopes to mold a new generation of MLB draftees with his revamped lineup in 2026. Gallaher, who spent the first two seasons of his career primarily at third base, plans to shift to his natural position of second base to begin the season. Around him is a new-look infield: Stony Brook transfer Erik Paulsen at first, junior college transfer Cooper Nicholson at third, and North Dakota State transfer Jake Schaffner at shortstop.
Schaffner also projects to hit leadoff in Forbes’ Opening Day lineup. It’s a major vote of confidence in the newly minted Diamond Heel, but Forbes clearly thinks a lot of his new player: he was the transfer brought in the day after the Super Regionals.
“It’s a pretty surreal experience,” Schaffner said of his new digs. “Being able to play for North Carolina, it’s been a dream. I was always watching the Tar Heels, whether it was March Madness, football, baseball. It’s super cool, and I’m really glad I’m here now.”
In the outfield, Forbes will replace outgoing center fielder Kane Kepley (now a standout in the Chicago Cubs organization) with Owen Hull, a transfer from George Mason. At catcher, Forbes was tasked with filling the hole left by the departing Luke Stevenson, now in the Seattle Mariners organization. Stevenson started all but one game at the backstop during his two seasons. To replace his plug-and-play slugger, Forbes knew he would have to cast a wide net. But as it turned out, he only needed to look down the road.
Eight miles down the road, in fact.
Enter Macon Winslow, a former Duke standout who helped lead the Blue Devils to the NCAA Super Regionals in 2025. He entered the transfer portal after the Blue Devils’ head coach, Chris Pollard, departed to take the same job at Virginia.
“He is definitely in the right blue, now,” Forbes said with a wry smile.
“You look at how many times they’ve been to Omaha, and they’ve been so close to winning the national championship here,” Winslow said. “And that’s the ultimate goal. So combining the winning aspect here and the coaching staff, I felt like this is a place I could be comfortable.”
To Winslow’s point, UNC’s 12 trips to the College World Series are tied with Clemson and Arkansas for the second-most of any program nationally without a championship (only Florida State has more). And that’s not counting Carolina’s multiple Omaha near-misses; during Forbes’ six-year tenure, UNC has lost home Super Regionals in 2022 and 2025.
“We all know that we should’ve done better last year,” said pitcher Ryan Lynch, who started Game 3 of the Super Regional against Arizona. “We had the chance, we had the talent, we had the ability to win it.”
UNC pitcher Ryan Lynch expressed regret at the way the 2025 season ended. “We all know that we should’ve done better last year,” he said. (Image via UNC Athletic Communications)
Lynch helps fill out a pitching staff which, unlike the lineup, is stocked with returning talent. Jason DeCaro projects to be UNC’s top starter after impressive freshman and sophomore seasons, while the sophomore Lynch and junior Folger Boaz will likely take the No. 2 and No. 3 roles. In the bullpen, sophomore flamethrower Walker McDuffie returns after becoming a fan favorite as a freshman, while Matthew Matthijs is fully recovered from an arm injury which cost him much of the 2025 season.
All that adds up to a team which, while not viewed as national title favorites, is still projected to be comfortably in the thick of the race to Omaha this summer. The Diamond Heels were picked second in the preseason ACC poll, just one point behind No. 1 Georgia Tech. Nationally, D1Baseball.com ranks UNC No. 11 in its preseason poll. And while Forbes believes in preseason rankings about as much as the next head coach, he said his team is itching to go after a long winter.
“Our guys are ready to play another uniform,” Forbes said. “I’m excited to watch them play another uniform. But I remind them: we’ve gotta get better today. So that’s what we’re getting ready to do.”
UNC opens the season Friday, Feb. 13 at Boshamer Stadium when it hosts Indiana for a three-game series. First pitch for Friday’s opening game is set for 4 p.m.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Joe Bray
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