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In all likelihood, the final collegiate games for both Gavin Gallaher and Jason DeCaro will come in the next three days in Omaha.
Those two have been instrumental in ushering in a new golden age for Carolina baseball. In Gallaher and DeCaro’s three seasons on campus, the Diamond Heels have qualified for the NCAA Super Regionals all three times, advanced to the Men’s College World Series twice and will have a chance to capture the program’s first ever national championship against Oklahoma this weekend.
To head coach Scott Forbes, each has embodied what it means to be a UNC baseball player. Gallaher played away from his natural position during his first two years, becoming Carolina’s everyday third baseman despite more experience at second base and shortstop. Now that Gallaher has moved back to second as a junior, all he’s done is become the second-ever Diamond Heel to be named a Rawlings Gold Glove winner.
“I just told [Forbes] that I knew I’d been playing the wrong position for the past two years,” Gallaher said with a laugh Friday. “I said from day one, I just wanted to be in the lineup. I wanted to contribute to the team. So wherever that was that was the best thing for the team, that’s what I was going to do.”
“In 2024, I made some crazy, what I thought were bad decisions,” Forbes said, “but the team bailed me out. I look up and Gavin’s playing first base, I think, at the end of that [regional] clincher against LSU… he can move all over. He’s willing to do so. There’s no ego involved.”
Gallaher acknowledged his goal in the offseason was to become UNC’s starting shortstop. That didn’t happen: Jake Schaffner was brought in from the transfer portal and won the job. Instead of pouting, Gallaher embraced his position at second base — and he and Schaffner now anchor a defense which ranks No. 7 in the nation with a .983 fielding percentage and has turned 60 double plays.
On the offensive side, this year’s visit to Omaha has been much more fruitful for Gallaher at the plate than it was in 2024. Two years ago, as a true freshman, Gallaher went hitless in three College World Series games, and Carolina went home after consecutive losses to Tennessee and Florida State. This year, Gallaher has recorded a hit in all three of UNC’s Omaha games (all wins), banged out four hits in Wednesday’s semifinal win against West Virginia and has driven in seven runs.
Forbes hopes that impressive run of form will continue into the national championship series and support DeCaro, UNC’s likely starter in Game 1 against the Sooners. Like Gallaher, DeCaro is no stranger to the Omaha stage, having started UNC’s first game in the College World Series two years ago against Virginia. Though Carolina won the game, it was not DeCaro’s most impressive outing: the then-freshman lasted only four innings and issued four walks.
If DeCaro had any jitters on his return to Omaha, he surely exorcised them last week against Ole Miss by logging 6.2 innings while allowing only two runs and striking out nine Rebel batters in UNC’s 6-2 win. That came on the heels of his best collegiate outing ever: a complete-game, two-hit shutout against USC in the Super Regionals to save Carolina’s season. Now comes a game with even bigger stakes than those.
“This is the biggest game that we’ve all ever played in,” DeCaro said. “You’re going to go out there and you’re going to have some extra adrenaline. So just trying to do a good job of slowing yourself down, taking a deep breath, and just at the end of the day, focusing on each pitch, one pitch at a time.”
DeCaro and Gallaher each have a unique position in Forbes’ program, and one that is certainly not guaranteed: they were starters from Day 1 as freshmen. One on the mound and one on the infield, that pair have been constants as much of the Carolina roster has turned over year in and year out. Vance Honeycutt and Casey Cook left after 2024. Luke Stevenson and Jake Knapp departed after 2025. The revolving door of transfers saw new fan favorites emerge in the forms of Parks Harber, Kane Kepley and Alex Madera — and then move on to greener pastures.
Just as James Earl Jones remarked that baseball marked the time for America in the movie “Field of Dreams,” DeCaro and Gallaher have marked the time on a much smaller scale at Boshamer Stadium.
“From the day that me and Gavin stepped foot on campus, this was always the goal, was to be in this game and to win it,” DeCaro said. “To see where we came from, from freshman year coming here, last year how we ended the season, and then this year, the journey’s just been awesome. Just excited that we have this opportunity to go out there and compete for a national championship.”
As for whether this is indeed his swan song in a UNC uniform before declaring for the Major League Baseball draft, DeCaro could only smile.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve got another year left.”
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Featured image via Associated Press/Vera Nieuwenhuis
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