This Week in UNC Baseball: Success, Awards, Ultimate Goal Still Ahead

The Diamond Heels took the final regular season series over NC State – Carolina’s ninth straight ACC series win – and finished second in the conference standings, behind Georgia Tech. As the ACC Tournament preparation begins, head coach Scott Forbes spoke to Inside Carolina’s Tommy Ashley for their weekly conversation.

Forbes discusses the successes from the regular season, the development and usage of the pitching staff, how Caden Glauber impacts the program and Owen Hull’s high level of play over the conference slate.

Watch the full interview below and scroll down for excerpts.

Have you accomplished what you wanted to up to this point?

Scott Forbes: “I would say yes from the standpoint that we’ve gotten better, and that is the mission statement of our team. Be process-oriented. Don’t let outcomes be distractions. Don’t focus on the records. Just constant improvement is the goal. So, your hope is you are playing your best when we get going in the regionals – we’d love to win the ACC Tournament, don’t get me wrong, but we’re still working to get better, improve on things, and I feel like this team has done that from the first day they started in August. 

“They’ve completely bought into it. Doesn’t mean they’ve been perfect, doesn’t mean we’ve been perfect as coaches, but I think even the coaching staff has bought into it. What can we do today to help our guys get better? And then we’ll do the same thing tomorrow, each and every day. Baseball is a hard game, it’s a challenging game, it’s a mentally challenging game as well, but I do feel like our guys have done a good job of improving in every area, so I would say it’s been a success as far as that goes.

“Would you like to win the regular season? Of course, but again, winning the national championship is the ultimate end goal, and to continue to get better and play your best when it matters the most.”

What can you improve on?

Forbes: “I would say these guys have met the standard. They know what our standards are in our culture. Another year above a 3.0 and higher than that in the classroom, which is hard to do when you have this many guys. They’ve represented us really well. The fans should enjoy watching this group and interacting with this group and be proud of how they represent our program and our university when they’re away from here, so they’ve met that standard.

“But we do have some baseball things we have to improve on. I think the biggest thing for us is probably just getting a little more length from our starters. If we can get DeCaro and Lynch – they’ve been phenomenal – but they can go a little deeper, add on one more inning moving forward. It’s now the postseason and if you can do it, then it allows you to manage a regional a little bit better and manage a super regional a little bit better and have fresher arms out of the bullpen.

“But to do that, too, you have got to pick it up behind them because we can say DeCaro or Lynch or Boaz need to go deeper but Boaz may have gone deeper the other day if we make two plays behind him. So fundamental defense, grabbing outs, not letting a team get the momentum.  

“Offense is offense but you can’t handle everybody being hot or cold. So we’ve gotten now where we know how to generate some runs, we can steal some bases, we can sac bunt, we can suicide. I think we can generate some runs, but you have to count on the guy on the mound holding them down, and how are you winning that 2-1 game like we did to go to Omaha in 2024? Well, we did that by making plays defensively, not giving extra outs, and our pitchers threw the ball really well.”

Are you satisfied with the amount Glauber and McDuffie have thrown so far?

Forbes: “So this sheet here is every outing and I can look at this calendar format, and you can see all the way in February every pitcher that’s thrown, how many pitches they threw, and it’s good to look at this way, because you can look at McDuffie and look at a Globe and say, okay, Globe threw 35 pitches at Cal on Friday, but he didn’t pitch the rest of the weekend. So then he comes back out here and you have to use him 16 against UNCG, but because he only threw 16, he only threw 23 and 20 against Louisville.

“So I feel like with those guys if you look at it, I probably would have been like, man, they’ve thrown a ton. But the way it’s worked out and the way we’ve been able to use one or the other most of the time and have some other guys step up in between. I feel like they feel great, and they’re in a really good spot. The stuff hasn’t gone down. If anything, it’s gone up. They’ve learned to bounce back. So now I think we’re at the point of the season where, because of how they’ve been taken care of, innings pitched can be misleading from the standpoint (if you throw a ton of strikes) you can throw more innings. So if Globe and McDuffie have a little better command, their innings are going to be more, but their pitches.

“So to answer the question, there is no wonder we’ve won this many games. If you have two relievers that have had that good of years… those are both Trent Thornton-type relieving years. They can go short, they can go long, they can go back to back, they can go back to back to back, if they’re shorter. So a huge luxury for us, and a credit to them with how hard they’ve worked.

“And we’ve had other guys step up because you aren’t 43-10 in the regular season with just five pitchers. Look at Jackson Rose as a freshman, what he did against Campbell and the innings he’s given us. Folger Boaz has given us huge innings. Chewy comes in and gives us big innings, Padgett too. You do have your top guys that you are going to feel the best when it matters the most and I feel like we’ve put ourselves in good position to do whatever is best (in Charlotte) to have them ready when we tee off in a regional.”  

What does Glauber winning Freshman of the Year say about him and the program?

Forbes: “Freshman of the year is a hard award to win, because everybody likes offense, everybody likes the home run. Aaron Sabato won that thing in 2019 and I thought Vance Honeycutt should have won it in 2022 but Tommy White won it. The bats won out but Vance changed the game in center.  I’ll argue that one until I’m done coaching.

“But the coaches that voted to recognize the value of having a guy like Caden Glauber. To see his ability, to see what he’s done in the league, and credit our team. Caden, when he got here was a little bit immature, a great kid, but he was 17. So credit the guys that were here around him in summer school that were took him under his wing, the DeCaros, the Boaz, the Padgetts, all of them, to help him learn that yes you are talented, but you have to learn there are other things that are going to be important for you to be successful.

“I think if you talked to Caden, he would say that’s why he’s had so much success. He’s been phenomenal for us. He definitely should be the freshman of the year, in my opinion. He’s a weapon from the standpoint, he can start, he can relieve, and he can change the game.”