A North Carolina native and Tar Heel star is looking to help win his program’s first-ever national championship.
The homegrown talent became a household name in his first season as a starter, and is already drawing interest as a potential No. 1 draft pick, even though he’s not even eligible yet.
No, I’m not talking about Drake Maye. This particular Tar Heel can be found just across the street from the football team’s practice facility, taking batting practice at Boshamer Stadium.
His name is Vance Honeycutt. And he might just be college baseball’s next big thing.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Because the Vance Honeycutt that thrilled Diamond Heels fans last summer was not the same person initially eyed by Carolina scouts.
Unfortunately, the time when Honeycutt came into his own coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. But while Carolina’s recruitment of Honeycutt went on hiatus, the reports head coach Scott Forbes got in the interim were more than promising.
“He’d gotten bigger, he’d gotten faster, he’d gotten stronger,” Forbes said. “We couldn’t see him because of COVID; we weren’t allowed to go out and watch, or we would’ve seen it for ourselves. But that was when I heard this kid might be better than we originally thought he was going to be. We thought he was gonna be a utility player.”
A potential first-round draft pick as a utility player? It seems dubious in retrospect. Because once he arrived in Chapel Hill, Honeycutt put those thoughts to bed immediately, clubbing three home runs in his first two games as a Tar Heel.
His and the team’s finest moments came in the season’s home stretch. Over the final 23 games, Honeycutt hit 15 home runs in just 82 at-bats and posted an absurd 1.535 OPS (anything above 1.000 is considered elite), leading a summer surge which saw Carolina win the ACC Tournament. Honeycutt was named tournament MVP after bashing two more home runs in the championship game against NC State, making him the first UNC baseball player ever to hit 20 home runs and steal 20 bases in a single season.
For the Salisbury, N.C. native who grew up a UNC fan, it was quite the week.
“We came in playing well, so we knew we had a chance,” Honeycutt said. “We knew we needed to play well if we wanted to potentially host a regional. We came out and we swung it well the entire weekend, we pitched it well the entire weekend. [And] it was definitely good beating State at the end.”
Honeycutt’s tales of glory from Salisbury High School seem like they were made for the big screen. The hometown hero was a multi-year letterman as both a shortstop in baseball and a quarterback in football. He helped the baseball team win the 2A state championship in 2021, the season before he starred for the Diamond Heels. And as noted before, he grew up a Carolina fan. So much so, that his acceptance of a scholarship offer was almost instantaneous.
“It was over,” he said.
Honeycutt’s postseason heroics helped Carolina host both an NCAA Tournament regional and super regional, which had been almost unthinkable when the team was slumping to a 23-17 record in late April.
But UNC wouldn’t quite make it to Omaha, falling to Arkansas in two games in the super regional, with the final loss coming in walk-off fashion. For Forbes, who was just in his second season as head coach, the loss still stings.
“I’m one of those people that hates losing probably more than I like winning,” he said. “So I can’t say that I’m over it. You have to deal with it. But you want to try to let it help you get back to that same game, and then win that game.
“It’s not easy to get to Omaha. I want to be back in that game, and I’ll take being in that game every single year. And I’ll deal with the outcome as it happens.”
Forbes’ philosophy bears a striking resemblance to that of his sophomore center fielder, who is already drawing accolades from national publications bewitched by his five-tool talent. Even during his season-altering hot streak, Honeycutt said his ability to stay grounded was what kept his bat humming.
“If you think about that stuff, it’s not gonna end well for you,” he said. “You just have to be present every pitch in the box. We were talking about it the other day in our meeting. If you’re not focused on this present pitch, you’re not ready. Then you look ahead, there you are 0-2, or maybe in the back of the dugout.”
“He’s a humble kid,” Forbes said of Honeycutt. “He was raised right. He’s one of our hardest workers, so that’s lead[ing] by example. And that’s what we need out of a guy like Vance. When your best players are your hardest workers, it makes it easier on you as a coach.”
Maybe it’s that maturity beyond the years of the 19-year-old that’s why he’s seen as a contender for the No. 1 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. Or maybe it’s his ability to hit 400-foot home runs. Those help, too.
North Carolina’s Vance Honeycutt rounds the bases after a three-run home run against the NC State during the second inning in an NCAA college baseball game at the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament final Sunday, May 29, 2022, in Charlotte, N.C. (Photo via AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
“Any kid’s gonna know about it,” Forbes said of the hype surrounding his young talent. “Today more than ever, with social media. But he’s also in the locker room with some really, really good players. And I remind our players: last year’s over.”
Carolina sits at No. 12 in D1 Baseball’s preseason rankings, with similar spots in polls from other publications. The 2023 season is already different from 2022 in that respect, when Carolina was not ranked at all in the preseason. It’s safe to say Honeycutt and the Diamond Heels won’t be sneaking up on anyone come springtime.
“We talk about it all the time: it doesn’t matter where we are; you’re gonna have to win games,” Honeycutt said. “Last year we had a kind of mystery about us, but this year that’s not an option. People are aware of us. At the end of the day, we still have to come out and play well and win big games. I think we’re gonna be an exciting team. We’re gonna win a lot of ballgames.”
The Diamond Heels will get their first chance to do just that on February 17 against Seton Hall. It’ll be their first game in Boshamer Stadium since being eliminated by the Razorbacks.
That game wasn’t quite the storybook ending the Salisbury slugger (trademark pending) imagined. But in this new year, Vance Honeycutt has his eyes set on completing that final chapter with the one accomplishment that’s eluded Carolina all these years: finding the bottom of a dogpile in Omaha.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jeffrey A. Camarati
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