Scott Forbes describes comfort level in closing with Matt Poston as 'really high'

North Carolina pitcher Matt Poston (2-2, 6.31 ERA) earned a win on the mound during Saturday’s 6-4 victory over Louisville in Chapel Hill after pitching 2.2 innings of shutout baseball.

After relieving Shea Sprague, who let up all four of the Cardinals’ runs on Saturday, Poston allowed one hit and struck out two against nine batters during the contest. Ben Peterson cleaned up the seventh for Poston before Dalton Pence recorded the save with three strikeouts over the final two innings to complete a scoreless finish for the Tar Heel bullpen.

While he placed Pence in the closing position on Sunday, Forbes believes his bullpen is versatile enough for someone like Poston to pitch in multiple situations.

“It’s high” Forbes said of his comfort level pitching Poston in closing situations. “I’m fine closing [Poston]. He’s done it, both of them can close. If we do need to go to Dalton [Pence] before him and Poston is available, we will close him. But the comfort level is really high because of his experience. He’s not scared of anything.

“The good thing about [Poston] is that he’s throwing pretty much all fastballs. But he’s had to throw his split before, so it’s gotten better because he’s going to need it if he’s throwing longer. If you throw one inning then you can overpower heaters. But he fills the position great — hard to run against and that’s something we’ve done a good job against teams that are really good and stealing bases. But yeah, I’m very comfortable with him.”

On the season, Poston has logged four saves in 21 appearances on the mound. He’s allowed 18 runs and seven extra base hits in 25.2 innings pitched with opposing bats hitting .250 on average against him. He ranks second on the team in saves, just slightly behind Pence who has five.

Poston did not appear on the mound for North Carolina during the series-opening victory, though Pence did find himself closing out the game’s final inning after Matthew Matthijs allowed three hits and a run across 2.2 innings. UNC would go on to win 14-4.

The Tar Heels will look to complete the sweep against the Cardinals on Sunday live on the ACC Network.

After this series wraps up, North Carolina will move on to play a mid-week road matchup against UNC Wilmington on Tuesday. They’ll wrap up the regular season with a series down the road at Duke from Thursday through Sunday ahead of the 2024 ACC Tournament.