Why North Carolina, NC State could be teams to watch in the NCAA tournament
North Carolina, with no shortage of strong arms and good pitching this season, is ranked fourth in the nation and solidly in position to be a top-eight seed in the 2025 NCAA baseball tournament.
But there’s also the matter of cranking up the offensive engine.
Enter Kane Kepley.
The Heels began a three-game ACC series with rival N.C. State on Thursday at Boshamer Stadium and came away with an 8-1 victory as righthander Jake Knapp overpowered the Pack.
Kepley’s night went like this:
Doubled to lead off the first inning and scored, doubled to lead off the third and scored, then had a drag-bunt single to lead off the fifth and scored a third run.
“He’s as good a leadoff hitter as we’ve had in a long time,” UNC coach Scott Forbes said of the transfer from Liberty. “He never takes a day off.”
By the end of the fifth Thursday, the Tar Heels had a 6-1 lead and were cruising behind Knapp, who kept pounding the zone with 95 mph fastballs. After sitting out last season following Tommy John arm surgery, Knapp is 10-0 in 2025.
“The big story of the night was him,” NCSU coach Elliott Avent said.
The Wolfpack, ranked No. 16 by D1Baseball, scored its run Thursday on a Josh Hogue homer to right in the first. But the Heels quickly took charge and the Pack, after a pair of losses at Miami last weekend, went into Friday’s game at UNC looking to snap a three-game ACC losing streak.
The Wolfpack (32-16 overall, 16-9 ACC) did that Friday in an exciting game, building a 4-0 lead, having the Heels rally to tie the score, then taking an 8-5 victory.
The game matched UNC righthander Aidan Haugh against lefty Dominic Fritton of the Pack. Fritton pitched his way out of a base-loaded jam in the second and lasted into the seventh.
But a two-run homer by UNC’s Jackson Van De Brake, after Kepley beat out an infield single, and then a solo shot by Stevenson off reliever Anderson Nance made it 4-3 in the seventh. It was Stevenson’s 16th of the season and 30th of his career.
The Pack added a run in the eighth, only to have UNC tie it 5-5 in the bottom of the inning after Hogue dropped a wind-blown fly ball in left field with two out.
But there would be instant redemption for Hogue, whose RBI-single triggered a three-run ninth for the Pack. It was his third hit of the night.
“They played with a lot of energy and they’re a good ball club,” Avent said of UNC. “Their centerfielder (Kepley) is an unbelievable player. They’re just a really solid baseball team, so this says a lot about our guys and what they did tonight. But they’ve done this all year.”
After a Saturday break for UNC commencement, the series was set to end Sunday, but the game was canceled because of bad weather.
UNC finds identity
Both schools reached the College World Series last year and reloaded, but neither has had a smooth season in 2025, both rebounding from slow starts. With strong finishes, both now are challenging for the top spot in the ACC regular season.
UNC (37-11, 16-10 ACC) found its team identity midway through the season, Kepley said.
“We understand what we’ve got,” the centerfielder said Thursday after the game . “It’s nothing crazy. We’re going to play the right way. We’re going to push the opposition as much as we can. We’re going to get dirt balls, we’re going to steal bags and we’re going to move the ball.”
Or be hit by it, if need be. Kepley has been hit 22 times this season.
“I’m not going to give up a free 90,” Kepley said.
Once on base, he’s a constant threat to move up. Kepley, a 5-8 junior from Salisbury, has 34 steals on 38 attempts this season. He also leads the Heels in runs scored (58) and on-base percentage (.471), and plays the game with a lot of fire and emotion.
“He’s just tough,” Knapp said Thursday. “Everything he does he does at a hundred percent. His toughness sets the tone as a leadoff batter.”
Forbes called Kepley the “premier” centerfielder in the portal after last season. He also believes inserting Carter French in left field has further bolstered the Heels defensively.
“We talk about this new age with the portal and NIL,” Forbes said of French, a junior from Tampa, Florida. “He got in UNC on his own and wants to be a doctor. Literally, an old-school walk-on.
“He brings that toughness, too, and our outfield has really solidified. And when you have our arms, it’s about not giving extra outs.”
UNC led the ACC, by a wide margin, with a 3.45 team earned-run average before the NCSU series. The Heels were ranked fifth nationally — Wake Forest was second in the ACC at 4.36.
Forbes has been able to roll out Knapp (2.03 ERA), then Haugh (3.66) and 6-5 sophomore righty Jason DeCaro (3.55) as his three starters. Walker McDuffie has been among those solid in relief.
“I thought we would have to find our way a little bit (offensively) this year but I thought out backbone would be our pitching,” Forbes said.
Forbes calls Hunter Stokely a “Gold Glove first baseman” and has had a lot of praise for shortstop Alex Madera — Stokely leads the Heels in hitting at .339 and Madera, a former transfer from Arcadia University, is second at .333.
Wolfpack has big April
The Pack, 29th in the NCAA RPI, used a 12-3 showing in April to springboard up the rankings. NCSU picked up 10 ACC wins in the month, winning ACC series against Clemson, Virginia, Louisville and Cal. The Pack swept Clemson, then ranked No. 2.
The Wolfpack is hopeful of being a top 16 national seed in the NCAAs, and came to Chapel Hill realizing a strong showing in the UNC series might be a must to host. Some projections have the Pack as a No. 2 seed.
“I think we should be hosting,” Avent said Friday. “I think we’ll have five or six teams in the ACC hosting in the NCAAs and I think we’ll be one of those teams, but we’ve got a long way to go.”
The Pack has gotten a big season from Chris McHugh, the transfer from VCU, who led the Pack in hitting (.372) and RBIs (46) after Thursday’s game. McHugh was hit on the hand during the Miami series but quickly returned to the lineup.
Another transfer, rightfielder Brayden Fraasman, had a hot bat in April. The junior from Lincoln Trail College in Illinois had six of his 10 homers in the month including a monster game against Clemson: 5-for-5 with two homers and seven RBI in a 14-4 win.
While Avent has relied on Fritton, Marohn and Heath Andrews as his three starters down the stretch of the ACC schedule, the Pack has gotten a nice boost this season from Nance. The freshman righthander from Eden struggled Friday in relief but has a team-leading seven wins (7-1).
This story was originally published May 9, 2025 at 10:21 PM.
