Pitch by pitch: Dalton Pence’s journey to career-defining moment against LSU

On the day before the Chapel Hill Regional championship, Dalton Pence told head coach Scott Forbes that Nolan Ryan — one of the greatest MLB pitchers of all time — once threw 235 pitches in a game.

And while the redshirt sophomore was willing to pitch that amount to push his team to a victory, Pence didn’t need that many on Monday night. 

Over the weekend, Pence threw a combined 117 pitches in three appearances, with 58 coming in a relief outing against LSU to help send the Diamond Heels to super regionals next weekend against West Virginia. Pence entered the game in the seventh inning and went the rest of the way on the mound for the Tar Heels, giving up just one hit while striking out four batters in three and two-thirds innings of work. Although it wasn't quite the 235 pitches that Ryan delivered, the Tar Heels would have not secured the 4-3 victory in 10 innings and the chance at traveling to the College World Series without them.

Pence’s journey to get to this moment wasn’t easy. Two years ago, the pitcher dealt with one of the biggest challenges of his baseball career. 

During the summer before his first-year at UNC in 2021, Pence's elbow started to bother him. For any pitcher, they know what that typically means. It's every pitchers' worst nightmare. Tommy John surgery. 

Forbes remembers the tears streaming down Pence’s face when he found out that he would have to have surgery. He remembers that Pence had the opportunity to get drafted out of high school, but opted to come to UNC instead. He remembers the struggles Pence faced. The year of rehabilitation and pushing himself back to full health all to get to this moment — the biggest game of Pence’s UNC career.

“Dalton is able to do that because he is just a blue collar, hard working kid,” Forbes said. “You look at him, he’s gotten bigger, he’s gotten stronger, and you don’t recover if you don’t get addicted to that weight room.”

After throwing 27 pitches on Saturday night against LSU, Forbes opted to save Pence for Monday’s game when LSU took an early lead on Sunday. And Pence made sure he was available, focusing on stretching and going through his post-game routine throughout the weekend to put himself in the best position to pitch whenever called upon.

The left-handed pitcher escaped the bottom of the eighth inning after allowing runners to advance to first and second, keeping the Tar Heels within one run. Then — after North Carolina tied the game in the top of the ninth — Pence shut down the Tigers to send the game to extras, something LSU head coach Jay Johnson said he was trying to avoid. 

“He’s got an elite arm, you know, ride fastball,” Johnson said. “He can really throw it where he wants to, up, down, both sides of the plate. And then, the secondary stuff was good enough tonight to get us off of that, and he made it really hard.”

Leading up to the Chapel Hill Regional, Pence and the pitching staff worked on his off-speed pitches, including his changeup and cutter. While he is known for his fastball, which sits in the low to mid-90s, his ability to vary pitches and lean on his off-speed options allowed him to be effective against a powerful LSU lineup throughout the weekend.  

In extra innings, Forbes chose to keep Pence on the mound to close out the game, and he kept the same mentality he had all game: take it pitch by pitch and not worry about his limit.

“If the game would have kept going and I would have reached the limit, I would have had faith in the guys behind me coming out of that bullpen,” Pence said. 

But in the tenth inning, after retiring both LSU's junior third baseman Tommy White and first-year second baseman Steven Milam to start the inning, Pence walked his first batter of the evening putting Josh Pearson — who hit two home runs this weekend — at the plate. However, moments like this are just what Pence prepared for after a journey just to get back on the mound. 

And as junior center fielder Vance Honeycutt caught Pearson’s deep fly ball to end the game, Pence threw his glove all the way to the UNC dugout, pulling on his jersey as his teammates rushed to mob him.

“It was the best feeling I’ve felt in the world, probably,” Pence said.

For Pence, this season, and the ability to close the game out to send North Carolina to the super regional and oust the defending national champions can be summed up by one word: special. 

“[This moment] meant a lot to me, sitting out my freshman year with an injury and then coming back last year,” Pence said. “This year has just been a special year.”

@mdmaynard74

@dthsports | sports@dailytarheel.com