What Scott Forbes said after UNC survives in game two of CWS finals

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North Carolina kept its championship hopes alive with a 6-2 win over Oklahoma in Game 2 of the College World Series final on Sunday, forcing a decisive Game 3 on Monday night. The Tar Heels got dominant pitching from starter Caden Glauber and key production throughout the lineup to even the best-of-three series.

Glauber delivered five shutout innings, allowing just one hit and striking out eight to quiet the Sooners’ bats. At the plate, first baseman Erik Paulsen went 3-for-5, while third baseman Cooper Nicholson provided a pivotal two-run home run in the seventh inning to extend North Carolina’s lead.

The winner-take-all Game 3 is scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. After Sunday’s win, head coach Scott Forbes, along with Glauber, Nicholson and Paulsen, met with reporters to discuss the performance and look ahead to the championship showdown.

Here are some excerpts from what Forbes said.

Does Caden surprise you anymore with what he’s been able to do this season, and in particular today with the season on the line?​

I mean, it’s just what you expect. It’s like the Dustin Ackley version of a pitcher. If something happens, you’re, like, shocked. I felt like when The Dust, that’s what we called him, was here if he didn’t get a hit, something was wrong with him.

And I’m sitting here thinking I might start him tomorrow because our chances are pretty good when he pitches.

You mentioned how Oklahoma jumped out to that 2-0 lead. The teams that score the first run in the College World Series this year are 11-2. And then Jake Schaffner rips the triple down the line, and then he scores on the wild pitch. Walk us through that third inning and the wave of momentum?​

I didn’t know that stat. I’m glad I didn’t know it. Maybe we need to try to get ahead tomorrow, obviously.

I believe in this team, and they believe in themselves. And in a weird way, they’ve played better, as they said, when their backs are against the wall.

For some reason I had a weird feeling on Friday when we played Southern Cal, but I woke up with a better feeling on that Saturday. I felt the same way this morning, but I felt that way because I know our players.

Jake Schaffner is a great one to talk about. I mean, that kid brings it every day. Nobody recruited him much. Went North Dakota and thankfully he picked us. I think he’s one of the best shortstops in the country. I know he’s one of the best overall players and teammates and one of the most impressive young men that I’ve ever coached just because of his grittiness and how hard he plays.

He plays through some nicks and bruises. But I think he’s always ready up there, and ready for the big moment.

He hadn’t got a lot of hits it seems like lately. So that was big for him, too, because he’d been stinging it.

Touching on that third inning, nine batters came to the plate. Seven of them were dealt first-pitch strikes, but eight of those nine at-bats went at least five pitches. Five of them went six or more. What do you have to say about running up Xander’s pitch count in that third inning?​

No, question. I think he threw about 50. But obviously, I felt we should have scored more runs there. So I want us to hopefully, tomorrow night, do the same thing but get that big hit. And hopefully we will.

But when a guy is that good, I mean, there was a point where I thought we might set a World Series record for strikeouts because he was that on with that change-up. And a good change-up is tough to do anything with when you back it up with 95, 97 miles an hour.

But we got him in the stretch. He started missing a little bit, and he was leaving the change-up up more so we can make contact with it.

But ill thought getting the pitch count up in that inning allowed us to get him out of the game.

How do you approach tomorrow’s game with the arms that you have? Who is available, who isn’t? And what is your mentality when it comes to who is going to be out there?​

My mentality is, number one, this is the position we all want to be in. I sure as heck do. And our players want to be in it. So that’s the first thing. Embrace that, enjoy it and go after it.

It will be all hands on deck. I trust our pitchers. I have a great relationship with them.

I can’t make that decision tonight because I want to see how guys feel. We take a lot of value in catch play. I told Coach Gaines, I feel like we’ve got about seven options to start tomorrow, and I like every one of them.

And I’m not trying to hide anything. But I want to sleep on it. And our approach will be everybody available as long as they feel good. If somebody doesn’t feel good, they’re going to be honest with me. It’s just a matter of who we decide as a coaching staff to start. I’m not sure who that’s going to be.

You told us on Thursday, remembering back to 2006, you were so nervous before Game 3 you couldn’t eat your breakfast. Twenty years later, you’re in the same position. I guess, what lessons or what’s the message going into tomorrow?​

I told a lot of people sleep is important. I got nine hours of sleep last night. I have to be careful because the guys know I’m a little louder and I have to make sure I don’t get thrown out of a game with umpires.

I have more energy. But just to enjoy it. I slept great. As a matter of fact, I ate a huge breakfast this morning, probably the biggest breakfast I’ve eaten.

When you do this long enough, you understand that there’s more to it than — don’t get me wrong here — we want to win the national championship, and we’re going to go after it like crazy — but you coach long enough, you understand there’s way more to it. And I just want the guys to play free and easy and to have fun going after that national championship. So I’m going to do the same thing and practice what I preach.

Could you talk a little bit about what Hull has been able to do in this postseason and what that home run kind of meant?​

Yeah, honestly, I feel like he’s done it, for the most, part the whole season. I think he struggled out of the gate maybe the first two weeks. But then he’ll also tell you that he decided to listen more and not have 15 hitting coaches, and listen to one, because that’s important. These kids have way too much, sometimes, distractions.

But he’s been so consistent. Again, I don’t remember a player that has been that clutch. I remember a lot of them, obviously, like a Colin Moran with all those RBIs. You’ve got guys like Kyle Seager and Dustin Ackley that were doubles machines. But you’ve got a ton of them. You got Chad Flack, who always got the big knock.

But what he’s done in driving in almost 90 runs, it’s unbelievable. He just has a knack for the big hit. And that home run was a big hit because you know they’re going to make a run. They made a run at the end. And every run we can scratch for, we needed.

Could you talk about that mound visit? Reading lips, it looked like he told you he tweaked it during warmups and then he tried to go and he couldn’t do it?​

The first thing, I was thankful that he told me it wasn’t his arm, because that’s what you dread as a coach. Got a kid out there pitching that’s going to make his career in the Major Leagues, not making his career here. I felt better about that.

He just said that his oblique kept getting tighter and tighter, had not pulled yet. I’ve known it long enough — could it have been dehydration? I hope it was. Because if he tells me he feels great tomorrow, he might be the starter.

But I just felt that’s my job is to take care of him, and I didn’t want to hurt it. I’ve seen things like that tear. So we just kind of — I just made that decision to not let him throw anymore, or even try to throw anymore because he’s a power pitcher. He sits 95 to 98. And that last pitch, I think, was 92 or 93. So he was backing off the gas a little bit. So I just wanted to protect him.

Gavin said this is the most unified team he’s ever been around. I asked Cooper why they didn’t panic after Oklahoma went ahead 2-0 in the first inning. What makes this team mentally tough and resilient, since it doesn’t seem normal?​

Yeah, I’m really enjoying it. We tell the guys in the first meeting, I have a PowerPoint, and the first thing that I show them is the word “love.” And we talk about the word “love” and what it means, and it’s the strongest force on the planet.

But obviously they know, like I said the other day, there’s some tough love. But this team really loves each other. And I think there’s some tough love in that locker room that I never have to get — it never gets to me where I have to be the tough-love guy.

That’s a credit to them in the locker room, working things out, because things aren’t perfect throughout the year. I’ve been a player, but if you have a special locker room, they work it out, even though they have difficult discussions. Hopefully there’s no bloody noses or anything in there.

But you know it’s a credit to Gavin Gallaher and Matty Matthijs, but a lot of other guys, not just our captains.

We talk about a lot of the big things that happen in the game. But just sort of speak to Carter French’s four at-bats today, four walks, I think the only time somebody’s walked four times in a College World Series game.​

I just smile when I think of Carter French. Obviously, coaching, you have a lot of different players from a lot of different backgrounds, but the great thing about a team sport is you have to have Carter Frenches on your team that aren’t the highest recruited players, kind of an old-fashioned walk-on. His summer coach let me know about him. He got into UNC on his own.

I’ll never forget the meeting. He came up to my office. He was about 150 pounds, probably. But I said, I’ll give you a locker and the rest is up to you. And then after about a week, he’ll tell you, I had to have a chat with him like, are you serious about this or not? Because it looks like to me you’re just somebody who somebody told you to try out and you’re not going after it.

But from that day, that kid has not let up. He’s worked. He’s been in the weight room. He’s maximized his potential. And he’s played great for us, made great plays in the outfield. He has that slow heartbeat and ice water in his veins, and his at-bats today were huge for us. I told him, I said — because my job is to always think ahead and coach. So I had written 10 down beside him, because he would have led off the 10th. I was hoping he wouldn’t. But man, I think he led off, what did you say, four times, and he got on base every time. And that’s what we need to lengthen out our lineup.

You talk about the pillars of your program, servanthood, humility, love, toughness, resilience, family. How does Erik Paulsen embody all those? And as a coach, just what were the emotions like watching him do what he did today, especially on Father’s Day?​

I say that’s a tough one. Give me a second and I’ll get it together. Sorry.

Erik called me July 4th, I think, and the phone rang really early, so I knew it was bad news. So that’s a tough deal.

My wife lost her dad suddenly the week of 2011. So even though I had not — my wife more than me, it was her dad, not my dad, I feel like he was my dad.

I told him, look, we’ll be here for you. I know I can’t help you by words. I learned going through that with my wife that the best thing you can do is just be there and learn to listen, have some feel and not ask them every day about it.

But my wife was also 30 years old and this kid is just showing up at UNC still in his 20s. To see what he’s done and to see his team embrace him, good night.

I met his dad, too. And his dad was awesome. I mean, straight NYPD, a bad dude. And he served us. He served our country. He served us 9/11. I know that he’s with Erik. I know he’s watching Erik.

And today’s a tough day for a lot of people, and it was a tough day for him. But it was a little less tough, I think, because he knew of his presence. He knew he was with him. And he knows he has a lot of guys in there that are there for him, and it’s okay to get emotional. It’s okay to have some tears.

But, man, you know, this is why you coach, at the end of the day. You want to help these kids leave here and get through things and have better lives and learn to deal with — life’s hard. Baseball’s not.

So I’m just thankful that he’s been in my presence, because, I mean, he’s been way stronger than I would have been probably at that age. I love him like a son. Hopefully he feels that.

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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC Baseball: What Scott Forbes said after Tar Heels force Game 3 in CWS

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