As North Carolina nears the postseason and creeps closer to clinching the ACC title, performances like the one they got from pitcher Aidan Haugh in a game against Louisville on Sunday are going to become a must.
Haugh didn’t necessarily have his best stuff on the afternoon but was able to battle through his start and give the Tar Heels five full innings.
“I mean he’s competitive, you can see it out there in him. And he’s got great stuff,” coach Scott Forbes said. “Sometimes when you’re scoring that many runs it’s more of a challenge. You may sit longer. The eight-run inning he sat forever.”
Aidan Haugh got hit a good bit, surrendering seven hits in his five innings of work. He gave up six runs, five of them earned.
Still, he fought through his start and gave it everything he had until he got the call to head to the dugout. His coach was thoroughly impressed with the grit on a day where frustration could have easily set in.
“I thought he kept his foot on the gas,” Forbes said. “If we make a couple plays here or there I think it’s three runs, maybe. They might have still got the home run, but at the end that ball was off the end and it carried out in the wind.”
North Carolina as a team has gotten here despite some major injuries this season. The team’s starting pitching staff took a couple knocks, ones that were not easy to recover from.
That’s why Haugh stepping up has been so huge.
But really it’s been the entire team. You don’t get to the point where you’re one game away from clinching a conference title without a team effort.
“It’s been impressive. My dad raised me like you’re going to care about the team first and you’re not going to ever make excuses, and you’re going to be positive,” Forbes said. “But we lost two Friday night starters and that’s not easy. But our team has really stepped up, and a guy like Aidan Haugh being able to move into the rotation and then other guys being better and better out of the bullpen. …
“So that’s been the backbone of our program this year, it’s like, ‘OK, these guys are out, we’ve just got to all step up and do better.'”
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