For a 12th time in program history, the Diamond Heels are headed to Omaha.

In front of a record Boshamer Stadium crowd of 4,491, Dalton Pence escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the ninth inning with to secure a 2-1 Carolina win on Saturday night. UNC finishes the 2024 season with a 37-3 home record.

Vance Honeycutt hit a lead-off home run on the very first pitch of the game in the top of the first inning to open the scoring, breaking his own single-season home run record in the process with 26. Honeycutt then came around to score UNC’s second and final run of the game in the third inning on a Parks Harber single.

That was enough support for starting pitcher Jason DeCaro, who went 6.1 strong innings while allowing just two hits and one run. Dalton Pence took over from there, throwing 65 gutsy pitches across the seventh, eighth and ninth innings to close the game. A lead-off single in the ninth was just the start of the very finish, as two Mountaineers would walk to move the tying run 90 feet away from home plate and the winning run into scoring position. West Virginia was batting as the home team and so was a hit away from walking the Tar Heels off.

It came down to a bang-bang play on the final out, as Ben Lumsden lofted a soft line drive to first base. Harber retreated to field it on a bounce and flipped it to Pence, who was sprinting over from the mound. Pence beat a head-first dive from Lumsden at the bag by a step for the final out, sending the light blue-clad fans in Boshamer into a frenzy.

Carolina will face No. 12 Virginia in the first round of the Men’s College World Series. The Tar Heels and Cavaliers are two of the three ACC teams to punch tickets to Omaha so far, joining No. 8 Florida State. No. 10 NC State and No. 6 Clemson are also playing in Super Regionals this weekend.

The full bracket and schedule of the Men’s College World Series will be released once all teams are finalized.

 

Featured image via UNC Baseball on Twitter

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