Part of what’s tricky about the College World Series is managing your pitching staff. If teams continue to win, every head coach will run into problems at one point. Starters are used to only being used once a week while bullpen guys need to be evenly spread out. A good situation to be in considering the circumstances but still an obstacle.
North Carolina‘s Steve Forbes was asked how he will approach this upcoming week but is focusing on Virginia for now. Getting into the winner’s bracket is the most important aspect in his mind. The head coach will worry about future scenarios when they present themselves.
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“The plan is to go after Virginia and go after that game,” Forbes said. That is the plus of being out here and running the pitching staff and having those conversations.”
Forbes also pointed toward the grind of an ACC schedule, never really having a weekend off. All three games in the series would matter and be a battle. North Carolina fared pretty well, going 22-8 and finishing at the top of the Coastal.
If anything, they are battle-tested.
“At the end of the day, we don’t play during the season unless it’s midweek, but we play those big weekend series in our league,” Forbes said. “You don’t get a day. So every one of our relievers, they’re all horses, they all can handle a big workload. They’ve all been managed well all season.”
There was a specific question about Aidan Haugh, who began the year in the bullpen but toward the latter stages of the season, he had longer outings. His last appearance came against LSU in the Chapel Hill Regional, throwing 3.0 innings.
Forbes says the plan is to move Haugh back into the bullpen and he will be available for use in the opener against Virginia.
“We will move Aidan back into that bullpen to start for sure,” Forbes said. “He’ll be available ready to rock ‘n’ roll against Virginia. Then we’ll try to beat Virginia, and then we’ll announce a starter after that. Most likely it will be (Shea) Sprague.”
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