Meet Carolina baseball’s ‘doctor’
What other nickname was premed outfielder Carter French going to get?
One Saturday Carter French was playing right field and scoring four runs in a 22-5 win against Duke.
A week later, the Carolina senior was taking the Medical College Admission Test on a rare Saturday off for the Diamond Heels during exam season.
No wonder his teammates on the No. 2 Carolina baseball team appreciate the senior walk-on for his on-field contributions and love calling him “doctor.”
Balancing high-level college baseball and a pre-med curriculum is the story of French’s time at UNC-Chapel Hill.
“I didn’t think that it was going to turn out the way it did,” French, a biology major and chemistry minor, said of his college experience.
For starters, he thought his playing days were over in high school. The spring of 2022, French picked Carolina over the University of Florida and University of Virginia — strictly for academics.
But after French won a high school state championship, the idea of that being his final game was unsettling. “This is going to be weird,” he thought.
French reached out to Carolina baseball head coach Scott Forbes, shared his high school stats and asked for a chance to walk on to the team.
“I’ll give you a locker for the fall. But I can’t promise you anything after that,” Forbes told French.
Four years later, French is approaching the end of a Tar Heel baseball career in which he’s contributed from start to finish.
French was a key reserve during his first season in 2023, stepping into the lineup when star center fielder Vance Honeycutt was injured. As a sophomore, he was part of a Tar Heel team that reached the 2024 College World Series.
Last season, French hit .280 and started the final 28 games in left field as Carolina became ACC champions. This year, he’s provided veteran leadership and strong defense to a Tar Heel team full of fresh faces.
The good doctor laying it all on the line 🤯
Didn’t even need to scrub up to get on #SportsCenter! pic.twitter.com/Rn7GXKrsgC
— Carolina Baseball (@DiamondHeels) April 22, 2026
Excelling athletically and academically
His first fall with the team, French quickly realized how high the level of play was. “Everyone was good,” he said.
There was a similar realization when going to class.
“People on campus in the classroom are honestly just as competitive as the athletes are here on the field,” said French, a 2025 ACC All-Academic Team member and a two-time recipient of the Bubba Cunningham Athletic Director’s Scholar-Athlete Award.
His Carolina courses have been worthwhile. French was “locked in” during each lecture in Gidi Shemer’s physiology course. This semester he enjoyed analytical chemistry with Todd Austell, who makes a tough subject “a bit more welcoming,” French said.
When French began shadowing doctors instead of focusing on summer ball, his teammates embraced the “Dr. French” nickname.
The bit has extended to the team’s X account, where a game-winning, over-the-fence catch by French against Clemson was called an “emergency extraction.”
“The ball bypasses the Cal defenders with surgical precision,” the account wrote to describe French’s first career triple.
Dr. French with the emergency extraction!!
4️⃣2️⃣ outs later. And the Heels have evened the series. pic.twitter.com/EkdAs9umTO
— Carolina Baseball (@DiamondHeels) April 11, 2026
To be clear, French knows he’s not a doctor yet. But he’s bullish on the career because it would be “challenging but very rewarding.”
Sort of like baseball.
Maybe that’s why he’s drawn to orthopedics as a potential specialty. He sees parallels between the batter’s box and the operating room, both places where you need to perform under pressure.
French and his fellow seniors made the walk from Boshamer Stadium following their May 9 win against Pittsburgh to nearby Kenan Stadium for Spring Commencement, an apt metaphor for French’s balancing act in Chapel Hill.
“The standard here is so high, whether it’s athletics or academics,” he said. “It definitely has pushed me to become a better version of myself because I’m held to a high standard by so many people here on campus.”
