Over the weekend, the North Carolina Tar Heels baseball team advanced to the men’s College World Series in quite dramatic circumstances. Trailing going into the bottom of the ninth inning, they came back to win with Owen Hull coming up with a walk-off hit to send the Heels to Omaha.
While the team will obviously be hoping that even more wins are on their way during the MCWS, it’s already been a very good season for them. More evidence of that came earlier this week in the form of another award.
On
Tuesday, Tar Heel freshman pitcher Caden Glauber was named a co-winner of Perfect Game’s national Freshman Pitcher of the Year award.
With 25 appearances on the season as both a starter and a reliever, Glauber has a 2.20 ERA in 81.2 innings. He also has put up a perfect 10-0 record in pitching wins/losses, and recorded four saves. He’s been the starter in two of UNC’s NCAA Tournament wins so far, including the big Game Three victory in last weekend’s super regional. He did give up three runs in that game and wasn’t still in the game by the time UNC rallied, but he did do a very important job. He kept the Heels in the game against USC, eventually allowing them to complete the comeback win. Glauber has become a key part of Carolina’s pitching staff as they put up an impressive regular season and are now within shouting distance of a national championship.
Glauber shared the honor with Texas’ Sam Cozart. The Longhorns’ reliever has starred in their closer role, having begun the year as a solid starter as well.
According to UNC, this is the first time a Tar Heel player has won one of Perfect Game’s “Rookie of the Year” honors since Colin Moran in 2011. The most recent Tar Heel to take home any sort of national award was Jake Knapp, who won the College Baseball Foundation’s Pitcher of the Year award just last year in 2025.
Glauber himself would probably say that there’s still a lot of work left to do this season. The Tar Heels are very much alive and arguably one of the favorites at the College World Series over the next couple weeks. However, it’s always nice to receive some recognition. Glauber has been more than worthy of it this season, and hopefully he can get a little more with some more good performances in Omaha.
