Vance “Superhero” Honeycutt homered on consecutive pitches in consecutive games, and both shots out of Boshamer Stadium were the margins of victory that is sending Carolina back to the College World Series.
Twenty-four hours after hitting the two-run walk-off against West Virginia Friday night, Honeycutt drilled the first pitch of the second game over the fence to give the Tar Heels the lead that held up in the NCAA Super Regionals.
Both victories were nail-biters supreme with different ingredients that proved the all-around mettle of Scott Forbes’ fourth Tar Heel team and his first on to Omaha as head coach. He assisted his predecessor, Mike Fox, with seven previous CWS appearances.
Honeycutt, the junior from Salisbury outside of Charlotte, actually did more than the ninth-inning bomb against the gallant Mountaineers and even more than the two homers he swatted in a Regional victory over LSU last weekend.
In his second at-bat Saturday night, his speed beat out a bunt that looked too hard coming off the bat and later scored. On defense, Honeycutt doubled up a runner at first base with a bullet throw after catching a long liner to centerfield — and he might have saved the game by sprinting into deep right-center to take a sure extra-base hit away from another Mountie.
As the Diamond Heels showed in earlier postseason games, they were uneven at the plate and in the field, which could have cost them dearly but did not. Forbes said his ballclub “likes to do things the hard way,” and it certainly did in keeping West Virginia from its first College World Series that UNC has now reached 12 times.
The pitching in the clincher was spectacular, with 18-year-old freshman Jason DeCaro going 6.1 innings and giving up only two hits while striking out five on 91 pitches for his sixth win of the season. He was relieved by southpaw closer Dalton Pence, another western North Carolina kid, who shut down the bevy of lefties WVa sent up to bat in 2.2 innings for his eighth save.
Carolina’s second and winning run to clinch the CWS berth had come in the third inning, when Casey Cook and Parks Harber singled to drive in Honeycutt, who — besides holding Carolina records for most homers in a season (26) and his career (63) — is the Heels’ record run scorer with 86.
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Honeycutt is like The Natural, a right-handed Robert Redford from the mythical 1984 movie of the same name. His walk-off blast on Friday didn’t hit the light stanchion and cause an explosion like in the last-of-the-last in the famous flick; it flew between the towers 425 feet into the Carolina night and triggered an eruption of relief in the stands that has become commonplace with these dramatic Diamond Heels.
The overflow crowd KNEW it was gone from the crack of the bat, and so did No. 7 (the same number worn by Mickey Mantle). A few steps out of the batter’s box, Honeycutt raised an index finger to the sky, turned around and waved his teammates in the home dugout to start the celebration. Vance made them dance to home plate, where they awaited his jubilant arrival.
Vance Honeycutt holds his bat flip after his walk-off home run against West Virginia in the first game of the Chapel Hill Super Regional on Friday, June 7. The Carolina baseball star holds the program record for home runs. (Photo via Carolina Baseball on X.)
Some of the standing-room-only crowd may have been in disbelief. How many athletes, at all levels, make incredible plays when they aren’t expected? But Honeycutt — All-ACC, All-American and a surefire first-round draft pick — faced the added pressure of those expectations. And he delivered again and again.
These kinds of happy endings have become so regular that no one at The Bosh dares to budge even when their Heels look to face almost certain defeat. Freshman catcher Luke Stevenson bombed his first pitch of the ninth inning on Friday to deep center, just clearing the glove of the leaping WVa outfielder, to tie the score. And just when it looked like extras for the second straight game, Honeycutt stepped in with two outs after Alex Madera singled on a two-strike pitch.
The Mountaineer reliever Aiden Major seemed like he’d rather walk a man into scoring position than challenge UNC’s junior superstar, firing three balls wide of the strike zone. Would Honeycutt swing on the 3-and-0 count? He did, missing a fastball right down Franklin Street. Major might have thought he could do it again, and his 90-something MPH heater went out faster than it came in. Honeycutt may have to do that in the World Series someday to match the highlight moment and how the ESPN announcers called his walk-off in “Chapel Thrill.”
The gripping game was see-saw from the start, with fearless West Virginia starter Derek Clark enacting the scouting report on the 5-foot-7, 170-pound lefty about whom Fox, the retired Tar Heel head coach, told a friend beforehand: “Will throw 120 pitches.” Clark went over 120 for the fifth time this season, with 144 thrown before he left in the ill-fated ninth and was replaced by Major.
With Carolina trailing 6-4 in the seventh, light-hitting senior shortstop Colby Wilkinson had continued his clutch play in the field and at the plate and changed the momentum by lining his third homer of the season and fifth of his career over the left field fence to set up the typical drama from his players “not looking in the rearview mirror,” according to Forbes.
Another unsung act of heroism was the tight relief pitching of Matt Poston, who after giving up four runs to Long Island in the ninth inning of the regional opener one week earlier (later won by Gavin Gallaher’s walk-off grand slam), managed three scoreless innings to keep UNC in the game against the Mountaineers, who had previously slugged three home runs of their own.
The Tar Heels went into Saturday’s game for a trip to Omaha with three last-inning wins in the NCAA tournament. College baseball, played these days by a mishmash of recruits, transfers and veterans, is drawing as many as one million TV viewers. That shows brands are still alive with schools like Carolina and West Virginia, whose team is followed by a rabid fan base led by raucous guys wearing Davey Crockett fur hats.
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Those Mountaineer fans were quiet for most of the balmy Saturday evening until their team, trailing 2-0, rallied to score in the seventh when Kyle West, who had smacked two homers in the first game, singled in a run before Pence replaced DeCaro. Carolina had missed a great chance to score in the sixth when Honeycutt struck out swinging with the bases load, proving that he is not quite perfect.
In the ninth, West Virginia loaded the bases on a single and two walks, but Pence powered through to the final out when Harber fielded a tricky grounder behind first and tossed the ball to Pence who beat the sliding batter to the bag by a step.
For the Diamond Heels, it was a small step for mankind and a giant step for the young men in Carolina Blue. It marked the 27th out that made their dream come true.
The UNC baseball team poses with their super regional trophy and oversized ticket to the College World Series on Bryson Field after defeating West Virginia 2-1 on Saturday, June 8. (Photo via Carolina Baseball on X.)
Featured image via Carolina Baseball on X.
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