Scott Forbes believes Virginia has changed since previous meeting

The 2024 Men’s College World Series field will be comprised of all SEC and ACC teams, which means those involved will be familiar with their competition in Omaha.

This is true in the case of North Carolina, who will be taking on Virginia in the opening round of the MCWS this weekend. However, Tar Heels head coach Scott Forbes isn’t so sure his team will be facing the same group of players that they had battled earlier in the season.

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“I wouldn’t say there’s a comfort level,” Forbes said of matching up against a conference foe. “When I drove in, I remember before I left the house telling the girls that hopefully, it’ll be the ‘Hoos versus the Heels because you wan’t the ACC to get there. We have a lot of respect for them. I know they have a lot of respect for us.

“We’ve both been really good in our division and really good in the ACC. But we have played them three times and we have played them at their place. So from a scouting standpoint, a ton doesn’t change. But they’re a lot of different at this point. We play a lot different than when we played [then], but at the end of the day, I’ve been out there long enough to know that the eight teams out there for a reason and we’re going to have to play extremely well.”

The three games that North Carolina and Virginia did battle during the regular season saw the Tar Heels lose the series two games to one after the Cavaliers won the first two matchups to begin the series in Charlottesville. UVA outscored the Tar Heels 21-13 during the first two games before UNC came back in Game 3 to win 12-7 and avoid the sweep.

That series happened all the way back in early April, however, and both teams are battle-tested and playing their best baseball of the season heading into Omaha.

For the Tar Heels, they’ve rattled off a 5-1 record since the NCAA Tournament started including a sweep of West Virginia in the Chapel Hill Super Regional. Meanwhile, Virginia has not tasted defeat in neither of their regional or super regional brackets.

The first pitch between North Carolina and Virginia is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET and will air live on ESPN in what will be the first matchup of the 2024 Men’s College World Series.