The Diamond Heels clinched the outright ACC regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament with a 6-4 win at No. 11 Duke on Friday afternoon. It’s the first time Carolina will be the conference’s top seed since 2018.

Casey Cook and Parks Harber each collected a pair of RBIs, with Cook’s two-RBI double in the top of the fifth knotting the game up after Duke had taken a 3-1 lead. Harber then drove Cook in with a single, giving Carolina the advantage.

The Blue Devils tied the game at 4-4 with a solo home run in the sixth, and the game stayed even until the top of the ninth. Vance Honeycutt led off the inning with his first hit of the series, advanced to second on a Cook bunt, to third on a throwing error and then scored on a Harber sacrifice fly. Anthony Donofrio added insurance with a double to bring in Cook. Cook, Harber and Donofrio combined for six hits.

Dalton Pence slammed the door by recording the game’s final four outs, earning his third win of the season and dropping his earned run average to 1.71, tied for the team low. Shea Sprague (six innings) and Ben Peterson (1.2 innings) also pitched for Carolina.

UNC”s outright ACC regular-season title is its first since 2013. Carolina has also won 40 games in a regular season for the first time since 2017. The Diamond Heels sit at 40-12 overall and 21-8 in ACC play entering the regular-season finale, which is scheduled for Saturday at 12 p.m.

 

Featured image via Aaron Fitt on Twitter

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