UNC is one of college baseball’s best teams – and has two of the best players in college baseball.
The North Carolina Tar Heels entered their 2025 baseball season with plenty of question marks, having to replace the likes of all-time program greats, most notably Vance Honeycutt.
UNC re-tooled its entire outfield, replaced its starting first baseman and a couple key bullpen pieces. North Carolina returned whom have proved to be the most important pieces of its 2025 roster, though: starting catcher Luke Stevenson and ace pitcher Jake Knapp.
Stevenson leads the Diamond Heels with 16 home runs, a .584 slugging percentage and 391 putouts. Jake Knapp is arguably the best starting pitcher in baseball this year: he finished UNC’s regular season with an 11-0 record (second in all of Division-I), sports a 2.14 earned run average and leads all UNC pitchers with 74 strikeouts.
Both Stevenson and Knapp recently earned recognition for their contribution amongst college baseball’s best. On Thursday, each member of North Carolina’s top battery was named a Dick Howser Trophy Semifinalist.
The Dick Howser Trophy is awarded annually to the best player in college baseball. If Stevenson or Knapp wins this award, it would mark the first time a Diamond Heel did so.
There’s still plenty of baseball left for North Carolina this season, continuing on with next week’s ACC Tournament and the ensuing NCAA Tournament Regionals. On Friday, UNC clinched a double-bye in the ACC Tournament, which it hopes to win for the second time in four seasons.
Stevenson deserves consideration to be a Dick Howser Trophy Finalist, but Knapp deserves to win the award. He missed all of 2024 with a torn UCL – and looks like college baseball’s best pitcher in 2025.
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