UNC Hosts USC for 13th Super Regional Weekend

UNC hosts – After sweeping through the opening round, North Carolina will host USC for its 13th Super Regional in program history and 10th time hosting the best-of-three set. The weekend starts Friday, June 5, with Ryan Lynch slated against Mason Edwards, and it marks the

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — For North Carolina, the road through the NCAA Tournament is already done. Now the Diamond Heels step into a familiar kind of pressure: the Super Regional, in front of their own crowd, with the stakes set for a best-of-three weekend.

Carolina swept its way through the opening round and now prepares for its 13th Super Regional in program history and its 10th time hosting the round of 16. UNC holds an 18-9 all-time record in Super Regional play, a format that debuted in 1999. Since 2006. the program has made eight College World Series appearances. the second most of any program in the country in that span. Seven of those trips to Omaha have come when hosting the Super Regionals themselves.

This time, the opponent is USC, which emerged victorious from the College Station Regional as the No. 2 seed. UNC will host USC for the first time between the programs since the Heels won a non-conference series in Chapel Hill in 2012. Before that, their first two meetings came in Omaha during the 1966 and 1978 CWS trips, when Southern Cal won both.

Game 1 is Friday, June 5 at 3 PM, with ESPN2 carrying the broadcast and Live Stats available. Game 2 is Saturday, June 6 at 2 PM on ESPN, again with Live Stats. Game 3 is set for Sunday, June 7 if necessary.

North Carolina comes in as No. 5 (48-11-1) with a 22-8 ACC record. Head coach Scott Forbes has a program record at UNC of 248-115-1, and Carolina’s record against USC is 0-0.

USC enters with a 47-16 record and a 20-10 Big Ten mark. Head coach Andy Stankiewcz leads a USC record of 149-90-1 at the school, with a 0-0 record against UNC.

The projected starters begin with Friday’s matchup: RHP Ryan Lynch for North Carolina against LHP Mason Edwards for USC. Saturday and Sunday starters are listed as TBA.

Series history tells part of the story, even if the matchup itself is new in this setting. The all-time series stands at USC 8-3, with the current streak at L1. In Chapel Hill, USC is 2-3 and Carolina is 1-0 away. There have been no neutral site meetings listed, with the record shown as Neutral Site: 0-5. Their first meeting came on June 13, 1966.

UNC’s run through its regional included three wins, starting with an 8-0 victory over VCU on Friday. Ryan Lynch led the shutout with 7.0 innings of two-hit ball and five strikeouts. Erik Paulsen delivered three RBIs on a double and a single. Saturday brought a tighter result: a 7-5 win over ECU to break the season tie. Colin Hynek’s three-run bomb tied the game in the fourth, and then UNC scored seven unanswered. Caden Glauber earned the win as he threw 4.1 IP in relief with eight punchouts, his 10th victory.

The weekend ended without an if-necessary game for the first time since 2019. Carolina closed with a 9-3 victory over ECU, again relying on offense and solid work on the mound. Paulsen was named Most Outstanding Player of the regional after hitting .500 with six RBIs and three doubles. He was joined on the All-Tournament team by Owen Hull, Colin Hynek, Ryan Lynch, and Jake Schaffner.

The matchup arrives with Carolina carrying momentum beyond the field. The Tar Heels were tabbed as the No. 5 national seed for the second straight tournament. the only two times in their history they’ve slotted into that particular number. It’s the 10th time UNC has earned a top eight seed. advancing to the CWS in seven of those years. UNC has made the NCAA postseason in nine straight seasons. the longest active streak in the ACC; Wake Forest sits behind with five in a row. and NC State reached the postseason for four straight.

Chapel Hill has also become a stage UNC can’t stop earning. Since 2006, the Diamond Heels lead the nation in number of times hosting regionals, tied with Florida State at 14 total. In those 14 years, they hold a 41-8 record in the regional round while advancing to supers 13 times. Their all-time regional/district record sits at 91-50. and their Super Regional record remains the 18-9 mark that frames this entire moment.

This is also a rare kind of consistency from the program in recent years. Carolina holds the distinction of being the only program in the country to host supers each of the last three seasons. They are also one of two to reach this round at all, joining West Virginia.

Coach Scott Forbes has kept UNC in postseason motion since taking over, leading the program to the NCAA postseason in each of his six seasons at the helm. No other coach in program history did so in even each of their first four years.

Off the field, the attention has been ramping up through television selections. The opener against Louisville was UNC’s first game of the season to appear on linear TV. The team is scheduled for 18 cable network selections: 14 on ACC Network, three on ESPN2, and one on ESPN. With a wild card pick up for the Friday night game against NC State. Carolina surpassed Clemson for the most selections in the conference. The 16 thus far on the year are the most national TV appearances in a single season for the program. Last season. the Heels went 12-4 in TV games and were 8-1 in the regular season in such contests; this year they are 13-3 in their network games.

Pitching is the center of the Carolina identity heading into the Super Regional. The strength of the team is the Carolina Arm Barn. which has solidified itself as the best unit in the conference in recent years. UNC has led the ACC in ERA each of the last two seasons and is looking to be the first to go three in a row since Louisville’s five-year stretch from 2015-19. It would be the first time in UNC’s history they had the best ERA three years in a row.

On the individual level, ACC and National Pitcher of the Year Jake Knapp led the conference in ERA in 2025. With two weekends left, Tar Heels currently occupy the No. 1, 2, and 3 spots as Glauber, DeCaro, and McDuffie battle at the top. It would be the first time UNC pitchers have gone back-to-back years atop the conference since Robert Woodard and Jonathan Hovis did it in ’05/’06. At least one of the dynamic duo of Glauber and McDuffie has appeared in nine straight games for Carolina.

The depth shows up in the numbers: Carolina has four arms in the top-20 of ERA in the ACC. and no other team has more than two. Glauber has the fifth best ERA mark in the country and is the only freshman in the top-20. DeCaro and Glauber are both over the 10 win mark. giving Carolina its first pair of teammates to hit double digits since Trent Thornton and Kent Emanuel had 12 and 11 respectively in 2013.

North Carolina Tar Heels USC Trojans Super Regional Chapel Hill NCAA Baseball Tournament Ryan Lynch Mason Edwards College World Series Scott Forbes Andy Stankiewcz