It might not feel like it, with many of our Christmas decorations still up, fresh snowfall up and down the East Coast, and all of us collectively still forgetting to write “25” instead of “24” when asked to write down a date, but college baseball season is just around the corner: UNC’s season-opening series against Texas Tech begins in just over a month, on February 14th. And there’s no better proof of that than the fact that we just got our first real preseason rankings of the year, from Perfect Game. The Diamond Heels are ranked 19th in PG’s initial rankings and are the 6th-ranked ACC team in their Top 25.
The Heels are coming off the program’s best season in the Scott Forbes era, which culminated in a trip to Omaha — UNC’s first since 2018 — before an elimination at the hands of Florida State. But that season also signaled the end of Vance Honeycutt’s career in Tar Heel Blue, and with him went a whole lot of production from last year’s team to the next level and the need for Forbes to start relatively anew: 6 out of 9 of this year’s offensive lineup will be players who were not in the lineup for most of last year. Because of this, even though UNC was a top-5 team entering the postseason last year and ended up in the Top 6 in Omaha, a ranking of #19 makes relative sense, though it’s a little harsher than I may have put them. In the ACC, they’re behind Virginia at #3, Florida State at #6, Clemson at #8, Duke at #9, and Wake Forest at #16.
UNC will be led by a returning battery of Jason DeCaro and Luke Stevenson at pitcher and catcher, respectively. Both have received preseason All-American predictions after fantastic freshman seasons and are already receiving first-round draft hype: Stevenson as a draft-eligible sophomore in 2025, and DeCaro for ‘26. Fellow freshman Gavin Gallaher also returns after a heroic postseason that included a walk-off grand slam en route to being named the Most Outstanding Player of the Chapel Hill Regional. Beyond them familiar names include steady middle infielder Alex Madera, who will likely bolster the bottom of the lineup again, and Jackson Van de Brake, who was a captain last year but didn’t see many at bats after the first month of the season. Van de Brake recently got the news that his petition for an extra year of eligibility was approved and, after finding some form at the plate in Omaha, looks to be a boost for the Heels. Beyond them, transfer portal additions Tyson Bass, Kane Kepley, and Sam Angelo have high expectations surrounding them within the program, but there’s a lot of projection involved with any transfers, in any sport.
But the real strength of this team right now, at least on paper, is the bullpen. Even with two of last year’s best pitchers, Dalton Pence and Shea Sprague, getting drafted by and signing with MLB teams, the Heels return a whole lot of talented arms in 2025. Last year’s presumptive Friday starter Jake Knapp will be available, as will Opening Day starter Folger Boaz, both coming back from surgery. Aidan Haugh, who started Sundays down the stretch, was drafted but opted to return to Chapel Hill. Trusty reliever Matthew Matthijs will play that role for another year, according to Forbes. Kyle Percival and Cam Padgett showed promise down the stretch last year and will try and figure into the rotation somehow. A whole host of highly-regarded sophomores figure to try and make that second-year leap, including Olin Johnson, Boston Flannery, and Francesco Capocci. And that’s not even getting into transfer addition Tom Chmelewski, a multi-year starter at Princeton. Last year’s team was as strong a pitching squad as Forbes has had in Chapel Hill, but it was fairly thin — he’s going to have a lot more options this year with any amount of growth from last year to this one.
UNC has series scheduled against Florida State, Wake Forest, and Duke among their fellow ranked ACC members, as well as early-season nonconference series facing Texas Tech and ECU — neither of whom are ranked but both of whom have historically solid programs. It figures to be an exciting season, and hopefully another successful one for Scott Forbes in his fifth year at the helm.
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