Thornton relieves UNC Baseball team with an energizing performance

The top-seeded North Carolina baseball team has prided itself on the strength of its pitching staff all season, but early on in their first game of the NCAA tournament against No. 4-seed Canisius, the Tar Heels’ pitching was anything but strong.

Starting pitcher Benton Moss allowed six hits and three runs in the first half of the contest.

But freshman Trent Thronton gave UNC a lift out of the bullpen, throwing two scoreless innings, and the Tar Heels turned a close 4-3 game in the seventh into a 6-3 victory.

“They gave us all we could handle,” coach Mike Fox said. “We just grinded out a win.”

The grinding started with Moss facing a bases-loaded situation with two outs in both the first and second innings.

Though the sophomore stranded three runners without giving up a run in the first inning, a walk in the same situation in the second inning gave Canisius its first run of the game.

“(Moss) didn’t look comfortable right out of the gate,” Fox said. “He just didn’t get in a rhythm.”

But Moss did just enough for the Tar Heels early on. By stranding eight base runners in the first three innings, Canisius fell victim to clutch pressure pitching by Moss, even though he didn’t have one of his better days.

After giving up three in four and a third innings, Moss was relieved by Chris McCue, who would finish the fifth for Moss and continue until the eighth.

Though Fox said McCue started out with some jitters himself, it didn’t take him long to come up big for the Tar Heels.

“Chris was really important for us,” Fox said. “McCue was good for us after he got in and settled in a little bit.”

Giving up just two hits against the nine batters he faced, McCue earned the win for the Tar Heels, but even as McCue left, the game was still well within reach for Canisius.

So the Tar Heels put Thornton in to close out the game.

“Late in the game you always feel pressure,” senior Chaz Frank said. “Trent, being a pressure player, delivered for us.”

Though Canisius loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth inning, Thornton did what he’s done all year for the Tar Heels — closed it out.

With a strikeout that ended the Canisius attack, the freshman not only moved the game to the bottom of the inning, but he energized the entire team.

“That was a turning point,” senior Brian Holberton said. “As soon as Trent got that out, you could feel the dugout completely change.

“The whole game changed after that pitch.”

The Tar Heel offensive went on to cushion its lead by adding two runs to its lead in the bottom of the eighth with the momentum the young pitcher needed to make his closing job that much easier.

Three ninth-inning strikeouts later, Thornton earned the save — something he’s become accustomed to doing early on in his UNC career.

Though the freshman has faced many pressure situations like this one, Thornton isn’t fazed by the bases being loaded or the game being close. He embraces and enjoys it.

“Its fun to have pressure,” he said.