Scott Forbes on Shea Sprague: 'He's a tough kid'

Shea Sprague earned the start on the mound for North Carolina during Saturday’s 6-4 win over Louisville. He pitched four innings and while he struck out three, Sprague was responsible for giving up all four of the Cardinals’s runs.

The UNC bullpen finished the final five innings without allowing a run and the bats took care of the rest. Despite letting up all of their runs during the outing, Tar Heels head coach Scott Forbes was still high on his starting pitcher in the postgame.

“He’s a tough kid. He might not be throwing 94-95, but he is competing his tail off. He’s got good stuff, but his biggest stuff is that he’s a tough kid,” Forbes said after Saturday’s win.

On the season, Sprague (3-1) has completed 54.1 innings pitched where he has struck out 48 opposing batters. He has recorded a 3.81 ERA and 1.23 WHIP through 12 appearances this season, including 10 starts. He has also allowed 18 extra base hits on the year.

2024 is the first season that Sprague has spent in Chapel Hill, transferring into the program from Elon University, where he spent two seasons. During his time at Elon, he was a two-time First-Team All-CAA honoree, was the 2022 CAA Co-Rookie of the Year, named to the 2022 Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-America team, and was a three-time CAA Pitcher of the Week during his short time in the league.

At Elon he compiled a 13-6 record with an ERA of 2.36 with 123 strikeouts in 152.1 innings pitched. Overall, he made 34 appearances, including 25 starts with the Phoenix. He’s also has a knack of picking off runners, throwing five runners out from the mound during his career.

As a sophomore in 2023, he led the conference with 90.1 innings pitched and finished second in the conference in ERA (2.69) and strikeouts (82). Not only that, but he finished with the second highest win total of any starter in the league with seven victories that season.

His career-highs consist of striking out a career-best nine at William & Mary in April of 2023. Sprague has never pitched a complete game at the collegiate level. Instead, his career-best saw him pitch 7.2 innings against Monmouth last season as well.

Impressively, he logged a 1.89 ERA as a freshman at Elon in 2022 in 62 innings across 19 games. He finished the year ranked 10th nationally in ERA and tossed 30.2 innings of scoreless baseball spanning over five weeks (March 5-April 16, 2022) as well.