What UNC baseball coach Scott Forbes is taking from suspension into NCAA super regional
CHAPEL HILL — Beyond the heartening crowd chants that echo and the anxious games in exile that resonate, North Carolina baseball coach Scott Forbes has found plenty to reflect on and draw from as the Tar Heels prepare for the NCAA Tournament Super Regionals.
UNC (42-20) hosts Arkansas (41-19) in the best-of-3 series that starts Saturday at Boshamer Stadium (11 a.m., ESPN) and sends the winner to the College World Series.
The second-year coach has called his ejection and the subsequent two-game suspension he served during the NCAA’s regional round an experience marked by dread and hope and a number of conflicting emotions.
North Carolina, the No. 10 overall seed in the tournament, held off Georgia and blasted VCU on the same day to avoid elimination in Forbes’ absence, then defeated VCU 7-3 in a winner-take-all matchup Monday night to clinch the regional with Forbes having returned from suspension.
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“That was a bad feeling, and I was just mad at myself because, really, you have to control your own emotions,” he said. “I definitely didn’t agree with what happened, but I had to live with it.
“And I did have to think, ‘OK, this is going to be a learning experience, and I sure hope I don’t have to watch us lose at home.’ But I had a really great feeling after we found a way to beat Georgia. I was like, ‘OK, that’s the big one. This team, as hot as we’ve been offensively, I think we can score a lot of runs and get to Monday.’ ”
Jeff Henrichs, the umpire who tossed Forbes last weekend as he argued an infield fly should’ve been ruled in the game UNC lost to VCU, and John Brammer, the crew chief who then intercepted Forbes and hit him with the suspension, both worked the regional title game. There they were gathering together for the pregame exchange of lineup cards at home plate, two nights after those altercations.
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“We have a saying in our family that sometimes it can be hard to forgive, but you’ve got to do it and you’ve got to do it quick,” Forbes said, recalling that moment with the umpires.
The home crowd of Tar Heels supporters broke into chanting Forbes’ name as North Carolina put the finishing touches on routing VCU 19-8 and capping its victorious Sunday sweep with the season hanging in the balance while he was suspended.
UNC outfielders Vance Honeycutt and Mikey Madej and relief pitchers Gage Gillian and Caden O’Brien said the chant made for a particularly special scene — “I had goosebumps,” said Madej, the regional Most Outstanding Player — and VCU coach Shawn Stiffler said Forbes would be “coming back a folk hero” after serving the suspension.
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Not that turning the Tar Heels over to assistant coach Bryant Gaines and stepping away from his team as it confronted NCAA Tournament elimination proved to be anything of a simple proposition for Forbes.
“It was emotional,” he said. “I will say it’s a lot harder to watch on TV when you’re not in the dugout. I haven’t been so nervous for 18 innings, I don’t think, ever.
“But I also surrounded myself with a group of people — can’t tell you where I watched because that’s a secret — but we had a good time and we were high-fiving. So we made the most of it.”
Chapel Hill super regional schedule, TV and start times
Game 1: Saturday, June 11 (11 a.m., ESPN)
Game 2: Sunday, June 12 (1 p.m., ESPN or ESPN2)
Game 3 (if necessary): Monday, June 13 (TBD)
Adam Smith is a sports reporter for the Burlington Times-News and USA TODAY Network. You can reach him by email at asmith@thetimesnews.com or @adam_smithTN on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Times-News: UNC baseball-Arkansas: Scott Forbes from suspension to super regional
