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Vance Honeycutt already has a great name for baseball, but many variations have been made lately thanks to the mayhem he has created around Carolina Baseball and Tar Heel nation.
MONEYcutt, because he was “money” with the “cut” he took with two strikes in the bottom of the ninth against Virginia in Omaha, driving home the winning run with a sharp single to left to further solidify his legacy in Chapel Thrill. And that nickname may stick when he signs a mega-deal as a first-round pick in the next MLB Draft, where today is projected at No. 13 by the San Francisco Giants.
“Who is ahead of him?” chirped Hall of Fame broadcaster and Carolina alum Jim Lampley. The answer includes three Wake Forest players and West Virginia’s JJ Wetherholt, who went 1-for-8 in the Super Regional last weekend.
From UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham: “Survive and AdVance.”
Courtesy of Inside Carolina’s Joey Powell, The Legend of Batter Vance, referencing the 2000 Will Smith golfing movie.
“Honeyclutch,” chimed in Mike McGowan, and so many others, on Facebook.
Here are others we might hear:
Sir Vance of the Last Chance Order.
Walk-off Willie (Mays, maybe?)
The Mantle of Mickey (No. 7)
The new volume of Thome (as in Jim, who holds the major league record in walk-off homers.)
If you have more, put them in comments below or on Facebook.
Carolina baseball teammates celebrate Vance Honeycutt’s walk-off single in their 3-2 win against Virginia in the College World Series. (Photo via Carolina Baseball on X.)
The prevailing controversy as Virginia was honey-cut to the Losers Bracket of the CWS: what was Cavs coach Brian O’Connor thinking in the bottom of the ninth? He led UVa to the 2015 CWS championship and has an 851-341 career record but lost his third straight game in Omaha by not pulling out all the stops in the ninth.
The Wahoos gave up a lead-off opposite-field double to pinch hitter Jackson Van De Brake, an All-ACC junior last season whose memorable senior moment came with a not-so-lethal .194 batting average. Scott Forbes sent him up for DH Alberto Osuna, who had struck out in his three plate appearances. Who got the best of that stratagem?
After Alex Madera bunted VDB over to third base, Colby Wilkinson fouled out to the Virginia catcher almost standing on home plate for the second out.
Coming up was Honey-Due, who had grounded out twice, flied out once and almost beat out a bunt. He stepped in with a .306 average, which meant he was more than expected to do something positive. Following Vance was lefty Casey Cook, who already had three hits on the day and the game-tying RBI in the 7th.
Virginia fans are justifiably furious today at O’Connor, who signed a contract extension but now has a three-game losing streak at the College World Series, having lost the first two games in Omaha last year.
In the bottom of the 9th, with Vander De Brake on third, why didn’t O’Connor intentionally walk both Moneycutt and Casey At The Bat? They didn’t matter in terms of scoring, but loading the bags would have created a force-out at any base, and bring up first-baseman Parks Harber, a right-hander against Chase Hungate, a righty side-winder with a 7-1 record on the season.
AND if Virginia got out of the inning and forced extras, the Hoos would not have to face Honeycutt and Cook in the 10th inning either. Duh!
Neither coach addressed the coaching blunder, with O’Connor only saying his team did not want to face Cook, the leading hitter on the team with a .350 batting average. The UVa coach lamented his team, which entered the game with a second highest batting average in the country, only getting five hits and leaving 10 men stranded on the bases.
“I would have done the same thing,” Forbes said of pitching to his superstar instead of walking him and facing the red-hot Cook.
“Vance has shown in his career that he enjoys the big moment,” he added after winning his first College World Series game as a head coach. “He invites the big moment.”
UVa’s only break on the daggum day was in the night game when top-seeded Tennessee rallied to beat Florida State after the umps clearly blew a check-swing third strike on the Vols that would have ended the game and forced UVa to play the better team in Sunday’s elimination game.
Virginia will now go against another ACC foe in the Seminoles on Sunday at 2 p.m. In the quirky ACC schedule, the Wahoos did not play FSU in the regular season, losing their only meeting at the conference tournament when the Noles scored seven runs in the 7th inning. Neither has Carolina, if that matchup comes to be.
The Tar Heels and Volunteers of the SEC have played five times in program history, with UT winning four. The overall top-seeded Vols will be the home team Sunday night, which means the Heels won’t have the same circumstances to win via walk-off.
But facing the No. 1 team in the country with a trip to the College World Series finals within sight? That sounds like another opportunity for Carolina’s Honey to be money.
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Featured image via Carolina Baseball on X.
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.
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The Salisbury Slugger
I only have “Tar Heel”. I love the fact that he is a 2nd generation player who is at Carolina because he WANTS to be here.
It isn’t that the Va coach made a bad decision, it is that Coach Forbes made the right decisions.