Caden Glauber Carrying the Tradition, Thriving Under Pressure for Carolina

Caden Glauber looked at his dad, Keith Glauber, through the purple and orange jerseys dotting the stands, who was giving an enthusiastic father fist bump. 

It was the 10^th inning of a tie game against Clemson. Tigers stood on all three bases—welcome to the jungle—there was only one out. Nate Savoie was at the plate; he’d gone 3-for-4 the day prior with a homer but was 0-fer on Saturday. He was due. He was also the first Tiger to have seen Caden twice, striking out swinging against the 18-year-old freshman to begin the ninth.

Caden fiddled with the ball, his Carolina blue hat a shade darker with sweat. His first pitch to Savoie was an elevated heater, 94, tipping off Macon Winslow’s extended glove and almost becoming disastrous. Changeup, 2-0. Then a 95 fastball off Winslow’s mask, 3-0. 

The next pitch could determine the game. One inch off, a series loss. One inch off, a grand slam. One inch off, Caden is charged with his first loss. One inch off, and self-inflicted disaster. 

Between every pitch, Caden was looking at his dad Keith in the stands.  

Tough Love

Caden Glauber grew up on the Jersey Shore, 10 minutes from the beach, in a house on a hill. Most nights, he could be found throwing with his dad, Keith, who was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals, spent seven years in the minors, and threw 15 big league innings for the Reds, on the street. Caden would jog to the bottom of the hill, Keith would take the top and the two would spend hours tossing the ball to each other.

“The person who made me fall in love with baseball was my dad,” Caden told Inside Carolina. “Because he played, obviously, for about nine years, he had a long college career, then got hurt a couple of times, but he made it for nine years.”

Sometimes the two, both stubborn, would get into arguments, leave the street, and return 30 minutes later as if nothing had happened. 

His family is the foundation, both for baseball and life. As the youngest of three boys, Caden fought for everything, especially against the middle brother, Andrew. Ping Pong, Xbox, pool, baseball, you name it, the two traded blows back and forth. 

“As kids, there were always some fights, but it was always just like he always gave me the toughest love, because, deep down in that, he wanted to see me succeed,” Caden said. 

Maybe it was the younger sibling mentality, with brothers seven and five years his senior, that led Caden to thrive as the youngest at Carolina. Maybe it’s why he says that Jason DeCaro shoots the basketball like an “old head”—even though they are only two years apart. It’s could be in part why his freshman year in Chapel Hill felt, for Caden, like he now had 40 older brothers. 

His family left New Jersey before Caden started high school, settling at Catawba Ridge H.S. in Fort Mill, S.C. He nabbed a spot on varsity his freshman year, including a trip to the state championship, and a trophy, bleached hair and all. 

Similarly, he was in the closer role for the Copperheads on their run to the chip; he would come in when needed, if it was for more than a typical singular-inning closer role. As a freshman, he earned the save in the state championship game. 

How’s that for foreshadowing of his UNC career? 

“My freshman year was on the varsity team, and it was kind of the same tough love as I got here in the fall, then, and same thing in high school, because I was still young, they always wanted to push me,”.

The Early Route

On Halloween, his freshman year of high school, he could not remember his costume, but still, the day sticks in his mind nonetheless because it’s when he committed to North Carolina. Before he even started his career as a Copperhead, he was in it for the Carolina Blue. 

His junior year, on August 5, he got a catch-up call from Chapel Hill, and jokingly, coming a year early was brought up. 

“In my mind it clicked,” Caden said. “That’d be insane, going to Carolina, I’ve been watching them on TV for my whole life. It would be a dream come true, but you think of the fact that you have school, and it’s your senior year that you’re going to miss. School is starting in two weeks, so you have to decide before you go. Your family is going to miss you. You’re going early as a young kid, are you going to be able to succeed?”

After a successful three years in high school, ranking in the 99^th percentile in fastball velocity, per Perfect Game, Caden walked into his parents’ room to discuss the option. 

His parents, Keith and Mary, were supportive but, like any good parents whose youngest was trying to leave the nest early, had questions.  

It wasn’t just baseball ability; it was doing the laundry, planning his own meals, washing his sheets, and those of the like. He would be away from home. 

But Caden had complete confidence in himself. 

“I think his exact words were, ‘I can do this’,” Keith said. 

Due to NCAA regulations, the Tar Heels could not speak to Caden until early August, right before school began. He had a week to decide if his junior year would be his last.

His parents mulled it over, and Keith contacted scouts, his former teammates, doing his due diligence to make sure this was the best route for his son. 

“His mom and I, from a baseball point of view, had complete faith in him as well,” Keith said. “But as far as leaving the house early and going into college a year early might be a little difficult, and maybe just because it was so abnormal that we were a little bit nervous.”

He squeezed two years of high school into one, completing double the math, science, and history that a typical 16-year-old would. He walked across the stage early and then headed up from Fort Mill to Chapel Hill. 

It was going to be worth it. Caden knew it. But he was still fresh out of high school, a youngin, with a lot of growing up still left to do. 

“Caden, when he got here, was a little bit immature. A great kid, but he was 17,” UNC head coach Scott Forbes said. 

Settling In

Perry Hargett showed him around. Helped him set up his room in the Avery dorm over the summer. 

The veteran pitchers on the staff, specifically Walker McDuffie and Folger Boaz, were there to shepherd the freshman, and help him realize that nutrition, sleep and being intentional with his time were all just as important as the spin rate on his slider and the cutter motion on his 96 mile per hour fastball. 

“Walker has done a great job taking me under his wing and showing me the ropes,” Caden said.  “Folger, he’s been a starter since his freshman year, so he knows the pressure, he knows the adrenaline, he knows all the tough situations.”

The entire team showed him that college is not high school.

It was Colin Hynek who gave Caden his welcome-to-college moment. His first outing in the fall, he was a bit amped up, threw a bit harder than he used to, walked a few batters, then put a fastball high and out. Hynek took him backside. No one really hit homers on his fastball in high school, but college was a different beast. Then three more Tar Heels all took the freshman deep; it was an adjustment. 

It was preparing him for the work he’d face in the coming months. 

Thriving Under Pressure

Caden has been instrumental in the Tar Heels’ season, a huge difference maker for the No. 5-seeded team, which is hosting its fourth regional in five years. His 1.93 ERA leads the team, first in the conference and third in the country. Batters are only hitting .180 against him. He’s got a sparkly clean 9-0 record, four saves and Carolina is 23-0 when No. 27 makes an appearance. He was a no-brainer pick as the ACC’s Freshman of the Year.

His heart-palpitating Houdini work down at Clemson is just one example; the freshman has been thrust into situation after situation that teetered on a razor’s edge with a slim margin for error. 

“High pressure makes diamonds, right?” Caden said. “In high school, I found myself on cruise control. Here, there’s pressure all the time, the adrenaline’s huge, so the pressure, the high-pressure situations make you perform better.”

Caden has been in his fair share of tough situations: Clemson, Georgia Tech, Virginia, the list goes on. 

He’s been a part of three extra-inning games, two of which have become culture-defining moments in the Tar Heels’ season. 

What defines his game, apart from throwing anywhere from 20 pitches to 90 pitches, maintaining 96 mph high heat at pitch 2 to pitch 95, is his presence on the mound. He’ll let the emotion seep out in the form of a fist pump or a yell at times, but it’s the head on his shoulders that treats the 3-0 count with bases loaded in the 10^th inning against Clemson just like it’s an 0-0 count in the fifth inning against UNCG. 

Even though he’s young, Keith says that Caden’s even keel has always been there. According to Caden it’s partially the byproduct of what Keith has preached, partially being the youngest of three and partially just pure Caden. 

“He just competes until the very end, and he’s always done that,” Keith said. “I think that all of these appearances that he’s made his whole life, he’s used to being out there in those situations.” 

Caden has had the jitters before. In his first few appearances, his velocity went up and he was a bit wild. In his first start against Duke, he had a little more amp. 

The only time that Keith and Mary can recall their youngest being nervous was the state championship his freshman year of high school. It wasn’t even that he was going to close the game; he didn’t want to get buried in the inevitable celebration. 

“His coach asked, ‘Are you nervous, right?’ And then Caden said, ‘No, I’m not nervous, I just don’t want to get dogpiled after this game’,” Keith recalled. “He basically knew that he was going to go out there and do the job; he just didn’t want to get trampled on after the game.”

His level-headedness has defined his game. An ordinary observer would not know that instead of pitching against No. 2 national seed Georgia Tech in April that Caden should’ve been at prom. This coming weekend, while Caden and the Tar Heels host VCU in the opening game of the regional, Catawba Ridge High School will have a graduation. A ceremony that would’ve been with Caden if he didn’t believe in himself enough to take the leap and jump out of his comfort zone of home a year early. 

The poise on the mound, the confidence to begin his adulthood a year early and his ability to control every situation have molded Caden into one of the sharpest weapons in the Tar Heels’ pen. 

“No matter if you strike out the side or you give up a three-run homer, your body language has to stay the same,” Caden said. “Your mindset has to stay the same, you got to bounce back.”

Postseason Awaits

Now the postseason is upon the Tar Heels, and Caden will be one of the most instrumental parts of their success. His parents will be in the stands. His oldest brother, stationed in Kuwait with the U.S. Army, will be supporting from across the Atlantic. 

Caden knows what postseason baseball could mean; a pitch could be the difference in playing another few weeks or going home to Fort Mill.   

Before he became the Tar Heels’ fireman, he experienced what it’s like to watch someone else bear the pressure. And because of that, he finally understands what his family has felt all these years watching him.

Caden remembers putting down the Xbox controller, leaving his Fortnite game to bound down the stairs and watch Dalton Pence’s 3.2 frames of postseason work against LSU. 

Caden had a weight on his chest for those full 3.2 innings, for every pitch from Pence to Jared Jones, Stephen Milam and Josh Pearson.

He then asked his parents: “When you guys watch me pitch, do you guys have like a weight on your chest?”

Keith explained, “It’s definitely harder to watch him pitch than pitching myself. You genuinely feel it in your gut, you feel the nerves, maybe you feel some uneasiness in your legs.”

Those nitty-gritty situations are where Caden wants to be; he thrives in them. He’s made mistakes, sure, surrendering two homers to Duke, a long ball to State and some mistake pitches in between. 

As Forbes says, it’s how a pitcher responds. So after each outing, Caden will watch back, maybe play a video game or two, not dwell on the good or the bad, and be ready for the next day. The next situation. 

“Honestly, those are situations that he’s always pitched in,” Keith said. “So there’s some sort of comfort where I bet, in a weird way, he’s more comfortable out there.” 

The Weapon

Under the hot South Carolina sun, Caden, having worked back to a 3-2 count, hurled a 96-mph fastball to Savoie. The slugger barely made contact and the ball dribbled in front of catcher Macon Winslow, who stepped on home to get the force out of the leading runner. Two outs, bases still loaded. Three pitches later, all strikes, Jack Crighton flew out to right on a slider in the middle of the zone. Inning over, disaster averted.

Caden looked at his dad. Then he walked off the mound, even-keeled, face showing no emotion, ready for the next inning. 

He threw four more innings, allowing only three base runners, keeping his team in it while the offense toiled away. 

“He’s a weapon from the standpoint, he can start, he can relieve, and he can change the game,” Forbes said.

The kid who came early, who grew up throwing at the park behind his house in New Jersey with his dad. The same kid who will be called on when the moments get heavy and the season hangs in the balance.

That’s Caden Glauber — level-headed, 96 mph, dad-joke humor and North Carolina’s Swiss Army knife on the mound.