By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — You can never have enough pitching, and UNC coach Scott Forbes hit the transfer portal hard in the offseason to make sure he’ll have plenty next season.
Last season’s College World Series finalists had their share of talented pitching, but the trusted members of the bullpen were generally limited to Walker McDuffie, Jackson Rose and Caden Glauber.
With the latter two likely shifting to the starting rotation, Forbes quickly worked to fill out the staff that also lost starters Ryan Lynch and Jason DeCaro to pro baseball. Last season’s staff, with few exceptions, was built with pitchers recruited out of high school.
That changed this summer, with Forbes dipping into the transfer portal to grab left-hander Joey Ruller (Queens; top photo), as well as right-handers Jimmy Voorhies (Cal State Northridge), Scott Doran (Coastal Carolina), Preston Crowl (Virginia Tech; below photo), Ryan Smith (Walters State), Major Osbolt (Walters State), Tim Tyler (Walters State) and Jake Moss (Penn).
“I don’t know if I would call it a shift. We tried to bring in some last year,” Forbes said at a press conference Monday at Boshamer Stadium ahead of his team’s fall season opener at 5 p.m. Friday at home against Charlotte. “Unfortunately, we didn’t win those battles in the recruiting. I think they could have helped us.”
Forbes said Carolina has typically preferred to develop its pitching through high school recruiting when possible, and this year’s portal moves were less about abandoning that model than about filling a specific gap.
“We still want to get the best high school players, pitchers, and position players, but we’re more high school heavy, probably in pitchers if at all possible,” he said.
Even so, this cycle called for a different mix.
“This year we just felt like, with what we lost, we needed to get some guys off the portal,” Forbes said. “We also brought in some really talented high school pitchers as well. But we just thought that would be important, and we feel like we landed some big ones, and we’re excited about them.”
Forbes was clear that his overall philosophy toward the portal hasn’t wavered, regardless of position.
“I don’t care where the players come from. I just want the best players to give us a chance to have the best team,” he said. “The transfer portal is a real thing now, and you can’t ignore it.”
Landing those arms meant working the phones through the portal, often in the middle of travel. Forbes described being on the phone recruiting even during Carolina’s run through Omaha last June.
“I put my headphones in and usually talk to a kid off the transfer portal,” Forbes said. “But I’m also thankful that I did because Joey Ruller and Jimmy Voorhies, and all these other guys that transferred in, here are dang good.”
Among the new arms, Voorhees (above photo) stood out to Forbes as an example of the caliber Carolina is now getting through the portal, someone who can push established options for a rotation spot rather than simply add depth.
Vorhees’ talent was evident as fall practice started.
“[He] goes out there his first outing and is 92, 95 with three pitches,” Forbes said. “He wants the same thing you want. So, competition ends up being the best thing.”
There’s a structural element as well. Roster limits are tightening across the sport, and Forbes said that reality is pushing every program, not just Carolina, toward more selective, more competitive portal recruiting regardless of position.
“You have to shrink some classes, and the number is going to be a hard 34,” Forbes said, adding that he’ll soon not be able to designate players as “designated student-athletes,” who don’t count against the roster cap. “It’s just a balancing act, and it’s much more difficult.”
The track record backing this year’s portal pitching haul goes beyond one class. Forbes pointed to Shea Sprague, a transfer from Elon now pitching in Double-A for the Boston Red Sox, as an earlier example of a portal arm who reshaped a rotation.
“There’s a pitcher that came in and solidified our rotation, which has really helped us in recruiting off the portal,” he said.
The portal success in recent years has included Parks Harber (Georgia), as well as mid-major transfers such as Owen Hull (George Mason) and Jake Schaffner (North Dakota State), as well as others from lower divisions such as Alex Madera (Arcadia). All of those players are playing in the minor leagues.
That history is part of why Forbes describes this year’s pitching-heavy portal class less as a departure and more as an extension of an approach that has already proven itself, applied this time to a part of the roster that historically leaned more on high school development.
Players going from playing one season at Carolina to being drafted get the attention of players in the portal. In 2025, it was the Chicago Cubs drafting center fielder Kane Kepley in the second round, and this year, it was the Boston Red Sox picking shortstop Jake Schaffner in the first round as the No. 20 overall selection.
The latter certainly didn’t hurt UNC’s chances of luring versatile former William & Mary shortstop Jamie Laskofski.
“It definitely got his attention,” Forbes said. “The thing I liked about Jamie, Jamie called me and said, ‘Hey, coach, is Gavin [Gallaher] coming back?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I think he might.’ And he was like, ‘That’s awesome.’ You never know for sure where that conversation is going to go in today’s world. It tells you all you need to know about this kid. He’s a winner. He’s hard-nosed. He’s been awesome. He’s a heck of a player, too.”
Once again, UNC will have talented position players transferring in. This season, there are plenty of talented arms joining the program as well.
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Photos by Joe Bray courtesy of UNC Athletics
