Lucas: The Captain

By Adam Lucas

OMAHA—The Tar Heels were filtering out of the third base dugout after Friday's heart-pounding 3-2 win over Virginia in the opening game of the College World Series. As they entered the tunnel behind the dugout, they were greeted by athletic director Bubba Cunningham, interim chancellor Lee Roberts and a few more administrators and close friends of the program.

The players emerged one by one, and each received cheers and high fives. Then came Vance Honeycutt, who deservedly received raucous shouting. He was followed by Jackson Van De Brake, and the cheers returned to their previous—still high—volume.

Until, that is, they were lifted by head coach Scott Forbes, who was walking right behind Van De Brake. "How 'bout that captain?" Forbes shouted while thumping Van De Brake on the back. "HOW 'BOUT THAT CAPTAIN?"

The captain, of course, was Van De Brake. And the captain had sat and watched for eight innings while his teammates battled to a 2-2 tie. And then…

"Coach Forbes told me in the top of the ninth that I would lead off in the bottom of the ninth," Van De Brake said. "I knew I'd see that same guy, the submarine righty. I had the scouting report on him and went up with that approach."

The righty, Chase Hungate, was naturally going to be tougher on Van De Brake, a righty batter. But Hungate missed over the middle of the plate on 2-2, and Van De Brake stayed closed and muscled the ball into the right field corner.

It was, as Van De Brake would describe it later, "probably the biggest hit of my life." It was also a perfect representation of the 2024 Tar Heels, a team that continues to get star performances from the stars—hello, Vance Honeycutt—but also continues to get subtly important performances up and down the roster.

Coming into the afternoon, Van De Brake had five at-bats in the last month, and none since May 24. If hitting a baseball is one of the hardest things to do in sports—and it is—then hitting a baseball after not seeing game pitching for three weeks has to be nearly impossible.

But it was a play you'd expect a captain to make. And in every single way except gaudy stats, Van De Brake has been exactly what you'd expect a captain to be. He started the first eight games of the season, but struggled with the bat and has started just once since May 7.

He's an upperclassman. You could forgive him for pouting. Those are his at-bats someone else is taking. It could have been an especially dicey relationship with Gavin Gallaher, a freshman who took Van De Brake's job at third base.

But Van De Brake refused to let his personal playing time concerns impact the team.

"He's been such a great leader and role model for me," Gallaher says. "He took me under his wing the first week we showed up to campus over the summer and he was always there to help me out during practices. He had a similar situation last year getting moved to third base and he taught me a lot that he had to learn. Every single game he's been an amazing teammate and he's never had a bad attitude from not playing. Most importantly, he's always ready when his name is called. He's an amazing guy. Amazing teammate. And a great baseball player."

At this level, there is an incredibly fine line between playing and not playing, between hitting and not hitting. Everyone on an ACC roster is good. Van De Brake is in this position because he had a couple bad weeks in February. But the Tar Heels are in this position—1-0 in the College World Series, with a showdown with Tennessee awaiting on Sunday night—because he refused to let those weeks define his season or his contribution to the team.

Friday afternoon, he was rewarded in the biggest possible situation.

"It's an absolute honor to be a captain of this team," he said. "I'm more proud of that than most things in my life. I truly am. Being able to be that for this group of guys means everything to me."

In other words: how 'bout that captain?

Players Mentioned

Gavin Gallaher

Vance Honeycutt

Jackson Van De Brake

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