The winter storm or cold front or whatever it was that terrorized the Eastern seaboard for the past three or so weeks has relinquished its grip, and while it’s definitely not spring yet, it’s temperate
enough to at least imagine the prospect of spring sports beginning. And that’s good, because they have in fact begun. UNC softball has started their season 4-0 as they try to return to the NCAA Tournament after a 6-year drought was ended last season. And the Diamond Heels of Boshamer Stadium, ranked #11 by D1 Baseball, will open their season this weekend in Chapel Hill by hosting the Indiana Hoosiers. I wrote a preview of this team a month ago, since when we don’t have a ton of new information other than a little more clarity on the starting lineup and pitching rotation, per Scott Forbes at Media Day and in an interview with Inside Carolina. So you can read that for a summation of personnel and expectations, but here’s the new information.
The weekend starting rotation will be Jason DeCaro on Friday, Folger Boaz on Saturday, and Ryan Lynch on Sunday. The lineup appears settled at all positions but left field and designated hitter, and looks like this:
- Jake Schaffner, SS (transfer from NDSU)
- Gavin Gallaher, 2B (moved from 3B)
- Owen Hull, CF (transfer from George Mason)
- Macon Winslow, C (transfer from Duke)
- Erik Paulsen, 1B (transfer from Stony Brook)
- Cooper Nicholson, 3B (transfer from Iowa Central CC)
- Tyler Howe, RF (freshman)
The left field and designated hitter spots are being vied for by a number of guys including sophomores Perry Hargett and Sawyer Black, transfers Michael Maginnis and Colin Hynek, and upperclassman returners Rom Kellis and Carter French — Forbes has said it might be based on pitching matchups to open the season, but that has to be to some extent coachspeak for “nobody’s really stepped up and grabbed the position(s) yet.” If I had to guess based on reading between the lines, I’d favor Maginnis and Black to start on opening day with Maginnis in left field — though if it is more in fact about the matchup, righties Hargett or Hynek may make more sense against Indiana’s lefty starter Tony Neubeck than Black’s left-handed bat. Hargett and French make sense as the first guys off the bench to pinch hit or pinch run; both have excellent speed and have shown the ability to reliably get bunts down.
As far as Indiana, they’re an interesting opponent to start the season with. Certainly a Midwestern team is going to be used to playing baseball in cold weather, so it should be something to see just how comfortable each team is playing February baseball. The Hoosiers didn’t have the best season last year despite some fairly high expectations, going 36-24 in a pretty shallow Big Ten and missing the NCAA Tournament, but they did show some promise and have been picked to finish a respectable 5th in the conference this year, which should make them a threat to return to regional play in 2026. They had two absolute star freshmen who look like they’re going to be the faces of the team this year in first baseman Jake Hanley (.333 average, 14 HR, 52 RBI) and shortstop Cooper Malamazian (.320 average, 17 doubles, 40 RBI), who are joined by 3 other classmates to make up the backbone of the Hoosiers’ lineup. They lost two position players to the top 5 rounds of the MLB Draft, but return the bulk of a lineup that averaged better than 8 runs a game and sported a team OPS better than .900. Needless to say, offense was not the problem for the Hoosiers, and that figures not to change much this year. This lineup wasn’t very good defensively, with a .970 fielding average, but they’ve got some good individual defenders (and Malamazian is a human highlight reel at short), so I don’t necessarily expect that to be the case this season but it’s hard to say for certain.
On the mound is a different story. The aforementioned Neubeck is a transfer from Missouri, where in his first year back from Tommy John surgery as a sophomore, he pitched 17.1 innings across 10 appearances and recorded an ERA of 16.62. You expect that to be better, a year further in his recovery and with a fresh start, but it’s still the information we have to go on. Indiana’s Saturday arm will be Jackson Bergman, a transfer from Toledo who posted a 5.65 ERA in 16 starts, and their Sunday starter has not yet been announced. Both of those guys have definitely shown promise, but there’s a lot more projection involved in imagining they’ll be good than with Indiana’s hitters. They do have some experienced options in the pen, but again, there’s some projection needed to imagine them as high-quality. Sophomore Brayton Thomas had an elevated ERA as a first-year player but struck out nearly a third of the batters he faced; graduate student Gavin Seebold threw 55 innings while shuffling between starter, reliever, and closer roles and could sharpen up his numbers with some role clarity; Caleb Koskie has been talked about as a potential two-way star even though he didn’t get a lot of opportunities on the bump or at the plate last year. A lot of the arms are either stepping up into bigger roles or are new to the team entirely, which makes them hard to really scout and project, especially because the group last year had such shoddy numbers (5.61 ERA, 1.51 WHIP).
Friday’s game will begin at 4:00 PM, Saturday’s at 12:00 PM, and Sunday’s at 1:00 PM. There’s a chance that Sunday’s game will be flexed to a Saturday doubleheader due to forecasts of rain, but as of now that call has not been made. All three games will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.
