Vance Honeycutt's Walk-Off Home Run Gives UNC Baseball Thrilling Super Regional Win

Vance Honeycutt blasted a two-run walk-off home run to cap off a three-run bottom of the ninth inning for the Diamond Heels, securing an 8-6 win against West Virginia in the first game of the NCAA Super Regionals at Boshamer Stadium. It’s the second straight Friday night in which Carolina has won via a walk-off.

DIAMOND HEELS WALK IT OFF IN GAME 1 OF SUPERS!#RoadToOmaha x 🎥 ESPN / @DiamondHeels pic.twitter.com/XZB6iuq54p

— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 8, 2024

“This team, it’s just been how they’ve been all year,” said head coach Scott Forbes after the game. “They’ve found different ways to win, and that’s the mark of a good team top to bottom.”

West Virginia’s Derek Clark, who came into the night with four complete-game efforts on the season, stayed on the mound through 144 pitches despite giving up five Carolina runs. Four of those came in a third-inning rally which turned a 1-0 deficit into a 4-1 lead for UNC. West Virginia cut that deficit to 4-2 before a four-run rally of their own in the sixth, one which included a massive home run from Kyle West – his second of the game – which landed cleared the Karen Shelton Stadium stands beyond the right-field wall. The Mountaineers led 6-4 entering the game’s final third.

“We made some mistakes tonight,” Forbes said. “We gave them some extra outs. We didn’t execute some pitches. But our guys also know they can’t be looking in the rearview mirror.”

A Colby Wilkerson solo home run cut West Virginia’s lead in half, and three critical innings of relief from Matt Poston kept the Mountaineers from pushing the advantage any further. Poston hadn’t pitched since the regional opener against Long Island last Friday night, when he gave up four runs in the top of the ninth and left on the hook for a loss. It was only Gavin Gallaher’s walk-off grand slam which got Poston off the hook.

“It’s hard not to think about it,” Poston said. “But I went in there thinking, ‘I can’t do any worse. So I might as well just throw what I have. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I’ll try again next time.’ But it happened to work today.”

The Mountaineers entered the bottom of the ninth three outs away from victory and sent Clark back out to the mound. But Luke Stevenson sent Clark’s first pitch of the inning deep to center field and just beyond the reach of the West Virginia outfielder, who leapt in vain at the wall to try and catch the game-tying home run.

“I honestly thought he caught it,” Stevenson said.

Clark stayed in for two more batters, striking out Johnny Castagnozzi and allowing an Alex Madera single before exiting with 8.1 innings pitched and 144 pitches thrown. Reliever Aidan Major entered and struck out Wilkerson for the second out, setting the stage for Honeycutt. After working the count to 3-1, Honeycutt unloaded on the next pitch, sending the sellout crowd at Boshamer Stadium into a frenzy.

“This place is special,” Honeycutt said. “We’re having some Bosh Magic.”

“I don’t know much tickets were going for on StubHub today, but whatever you spent to come to this game, you dang sure got your money’s worth,” said West Virginia head coach Randy Mazey. “What a great college baseball game.”

Carolina is now one win away from clinching its first appearance in the Men’s College World Series since 2018, and its first with Forbes as head coach. The second game of the Super Regional is scheduled for Saturday night at 8 p.m. in Chapel Hill.

Featured image via UNC Baseball on Twitter

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Vance Honeycutt’s Walk-Off Home Run Gives UNC Baseball Thrilling Super Regional Win

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