Scott Forbes evaluates how confident he is in UNC's starting rotation behind Jason DeCaro

Going into the 2025 college baseball season, North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Scott Forbes knows that he has a special member of his rotation in Jason DeCaro. The questions, however, begin with who he’ll turn to in the rotation after that.

As Forbes recently explained, while he doesn’t want to have to deal with injuries, he is confident in his team’s depth. That, in turn, is going to give him plenty of options to use in the rotation throughout the season.

“I don’t think I’m ever comfortable,” Scott Forbes said. “But I’m definitely pretty confident in our pitching staff. Coach [Bryant] Gaines and Coach [Jason] Howell — talk about being lucky, I remind myself about our staff and how awesome they are and how good of coaches they are and how good of people and how much I need to just step back at times and just trust what they’re doing and stay the heck out of it, but they have options. We have options. We have depth and guys have improved. So, they’re really pushing each other.”

For the time being, Scott Forbes did admit that Jason DeCaro is the likely Friday starter. Last season, he made 18 appearances, all of which were starts. He accumulated 89.2 innings pitched and had a 3.81 ERA with 78 strikeouts and 44 walks.

“Yes, Jason right now if we started today, he’d start on Friday,” Forbes said. “But there are guys that also want to pitch on Friday and they’re pushing Jason DeCaro. It’s not like Jason DeCaro the gap is that big on this pitching staff.”

Beyond DeCaro, there is depth and plenty of options for Forbes to choose from. With the season just a few weeks away, it’s now a battle for the remainder of the spots in UNC’s rotation.

“A guy like Aidan Haugh came back who you just saw some flashes that were really good last year. You’ve got [Jake] Knapp, you’ve got [Folger Boaz], you’ve got [Kyle Percival], you’ve got Olin Johnson. So, there’s a good battle going on. We have some other guys that have improved. We’ve got some experience returning. Like you’ve got [Cameron] Padgett, [Matthew] Matthijs, and Percival. All those guys that pitched in big games,” Forbes said.

“There’s some freshmen that are ultra, ultra talented. We have to figure out what role they’re gonna be in, but we started a freshman last year on Friday and our guys know every season’s new. Yeah, you have done it, but we rolled Alex White out there on Saturday in 2007 on a really, really good team because he deserved it. So, it’s going to be a battle in the preseason. I’m excited to watch it unfold for sure.”

Scott Forbes shared an injury update on Folger Boaz, Jake Knapp

Two of UNC’s pitchers, Folger Boaz and Jake Knapp, are recovering from injuries. Luckily for the Tar Heels, Scott Forbes was able to share a positive update on their recovery ahead of the season.

“You can see the smile that just came to my face. They’re both back. Folger is further along than Jake. Folger is good to go. He had the bracing. The same surgery that Max Carlson had that Dalton Pence had. He had it about the same time that Carlson had it… Jake’s going to be ready too. If it was up to Jake, Jake was ready today. Jake is older,” Forbes said.

“He came to my office and said, ‘I don’t want a pitch count if I’m a starter, and I don’t want you to tell me how many days rest I need if I’m a reliever.’ How many guys do that in today’s world? Here’s a prospect, gigantic kid… According to Jake, he’s ready to be at a year for the full repair, early February, and he said that’s plenty of time and that he’s going to be ready to go February 14th. Now, he looks like he’s ready, but we’ll see. We’re excited to have him back. There’s more to it than just their talent. To see them work, to see how hard they’ve worked since the day they got hurt and injured, to where they are now — again, it’s a credit to them. They’re ready because of their work ethic.”

The North Carolina Tar Heels open the season on Friday, February 14th against Texas Tech. That game will be the first chance to see these UNC pitchers in action this season.