Freshman Trent Thornton pitches well, picks up a hit this weekend

Typically a midweek starter, freshman pitcher Trent Thornton would do just about anything for the North Carolina baseball team.

Just this weekend alone, Thornton picked up his first career save Saturday and tacked on another 4.1 innings of relief for a win the next day.

But in the eighth inning of Sunday’s 8-4 sweep-sealing win against Maryland, he was asked to do something he never expected — something he had no desire to do.

“I go in the dugout, and they’re like, ‘Trent, you’re in the hole,’” Thornton said. “I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? I’m not hitting.’

“And they’re like, ‘Yeah you are. We don’t have anyone else to hit.”

After emptying out the bench and vacating the designated hitter spot by moving Landon Lassiter to shortstop, UNC had no one else to turn to but the man on the mound.

So Thornton grabbed teammate Mike Zolk’s bat and reluctantly headed to the plate for his first at-bat since high school. He saw three curveballs — his Achilles’ heel — from Maryland pitcher Jake Drossner and couldn’t do anything with them.

But then, finally, he saw a fastball and sent it scorching back up the middle, rocketing past the pitcher, for his first career hit.

“It was unbelievable,” said third baseman Colin Moran, who homered earlier in the inning. “I thought he would go down on three pitches.”

The moment shouldn’t have been a surprise. After all, Thornton has excelled in every other role he’s filled this season.

On Saturday night, the 6-foot right-hander entered the game in the ninth inning with no one out and a runner on second. Admittedly nervous, Thornton didn’t buckle under pressure. He produced a groundout and punctuated his first career save with back-to-back punchouts — much to the delight of an electrified crowd of about 3,000.

“I’ve never closed before, so it was a little bit more intense for me,” Thornton said. “But I just got in there and got the job done. And, I mean, I had goosebumps and everything.”

Thornton added another 63 pitches Sunday in relief of starter Hobbs Johnson, who was pulled after loading the bases with two outs in the fifth. Thornton entered and provided a lift once again, tossing 4.1 scoreless innings to earn his seventh win of the year.

The freshman has been nearly perfect in his first collegiate season, giving up just three earned runs in 45 innings — good for a team-best 0.60 ERA.

But the more glaring number for coach Mike Fox is Thornton’s walk total: five.

“He’s a strike thrower. I just want guys out there who are gonna throw strikes,” Fox said.

“It was a big-time performance by him (this weekend) … That’s his first experience of being in that situation, and he did well.”

Starter, closer or long reliever — Thornton seems willing to take the ball at any opportunity.

And if Sunday was any indication, he can hold his own with a bat, too.

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.