UNC-NC State: Scott Forbes Postgame

DURHAM, N.C. — North Carolina head coach Scott Forbes met with the media following his team’s 3-1 win over NC State in the Battle of the DBAP in Durham on Thursday night. The Tar Heel bats came through in the clutch late after a pitcher’s duel dominated the night through seven innings.

Watch the full postgame session above or scroll down for exerpts…

On the benefit of playing State in the DBAP and Folger Boaz’s performance

Scott Forbes: “The biggest thing for me is I wanted to get as many guys that haven’t been in this environment. We have some position players that were banged up, that also couldn’t play. I think we had three out tonight. And Folger Boaz, he hasn’t logged a ton of innings but he has been in this environment and I wanted to get him back out there. He’s worked really hard on some different pitches. He’s got way more weapons. He’s just he looks like we thought he was going to look like eventually. So that’s great to see.  We also got to see all these new guys out there in different situations. Match them up a little bit so you’re probably going to see that more this spring. I’m probably going be walking out (to the mound) a little more than people are going like. But if we win, I don’t care what people like.”

Carter French’s big hit

Forbes: “French, he’s a starter, but we want to change our lineup and just get some other guys in this environment. I know what I’m going to get from Carter French. He has ice water in his veins.”

Adding pitches to arsenals of Walker McDuffie, and others

Forbes: “(McDuffie) threw a ton of change ups. That’s something that we’ve added to him so we didn’t let him throw many sliders. We let him throw more of those tonight. But he still threw a lot of change ups and he executed.  Cam Seagraves executed some really good change ups. Talan Holiday, a freshman, is more of a breaking ball guy but he’s added a change up so that’s a big thing. Jackson Rose came in and made some good pitches.”

Boston Flannery’s improvement

Forbes: “I had a lot of great takeaways tonight, but that was big one, in my opinion. Boston has stuck with it in a transfer portal age, where a lot of kids with his ability would have jumped ship and left. He loves UNC, loves his teammates. He stuck with it. He’s made some changes. He’s matured on and off the field, and he’s going to be rewarded for it. I mean, his stuff is really good but he doesn’t have to be 98…you’ve seen 98 out of him but he doesn’t have to be 98 when he’s sinking the ball and getting ahead in counts.  He can reach back and do that.  I think Boston Flannery can be a huge part of our pitching staff this year, and that that was big for him from the confidence standpoint, but also big for us and his teammates.”

The importance of arms

Forbes: “It’s an arms race. If you don’t have arms, you’re not going to win. And I thought both teams threw a ton of strikes. There weren’t a ton of walks. I think we struck them out more than they struck us out. So we did a good job moving the ball. But I think good pitching is always ahead of even good hitting, and I thought that was the case tonight.  And it is a new ballpark. They’re used to playing at their place all fall. We’re used to playing at our place all fall. But man, what a beautiful night.”

Tension picked up late

Forbes: “At the end of the day, both teams, it’s North Carolina and NC State, and we’d all be lying…I mean, obviously it’s not in the record book, but it’s the players know, the coaches know. And you want to see how they’re going to compete in this environment. And that’s why we need to be to play more of these games. Just playing two is not enough. Playing each other gets old, because you find out more about your guys in the bigger environment. If it was more tense, I felt like the crowd got into it more, and that just showed you like they felt like it was meaningful, and that helped, obviously, get the players even more into it.”