Friday, June 7
Chapel Hill
6 PM
North Carolina
46-14
8
vs
6
West Virginia
36-23
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8
9
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H
E
West Virginia
0
0
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1
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8
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North Carolina
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8
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Photo by: ANTHONY SORBELLINI
Honeycutt Walks Off WVU In Game One Of Super Regional
June 7, 2024 | Baseball
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Vance Honeycutt hit a two-out, two-run walk-off home run to lead North Carolina to an 8-6 win over West Virginia in game one of the 2024 Chapel Hill Super Regional on Friday.
Game two will be Saturday at 8 p.m. A win by the Tar Heels would send them to their 12th College World Series in search of their first title. A win by the Mountaineers would force a winner-take-all game on Sunday.
"Credit [Coach Wierzbicki], he had a good report," Honeycutt said. "That tends to happen. We normally have pretty good reports on the guys. We knew he had a fastball and slider and that's what we knew he was going to attack us with."
UNC (46-14) entered the ninth down by a run. Luke Stevenson homered to lead off the inning, tying the game.
After Derek Clark struck out Johnny Castagnozzi, Alex Madera singled up the middle to put the winning run on base. Clark gave way to Aidan Major, striking out Colby Wilkerson, who homered in the seventh, to bring Honeycutt to plate.
"They have definitely bought into what we preach from the first day; just keep playing," said UNC head coach Scott Forbes. "I really challenged them this weekend, even more than last weekend, to try to shrink it down all the way to every individual pitch and keep your eyes forward.
"Our guys also know they can't be looking in the rear view mirror," Forbes said. "And this team is just kind of been how they've been all year. They've found different ways to win and that's the mark of a good team, top to bottom."
Matt Poston (5-2) threw three scoreless innings and struck out four.
Derek Clark (8-3) threw 144 pitches in 8 1/3 innings and allowed seven runs – all earned – with seven hits, three walks, while striking out eight.
WVU took the lead with four runs in the sixth. Reed Chumley and Kyle West each hit two-run homers to turn the Mountaineers' two-run deficit into a two-run lead, 6-4.
West hit his first of two homers in the third to give WVU (36-23) a 1-0 lead, but the Tar Heels answered with four runs in the bottom of the frame.
Parks Harber's one-out bases-loaded single gave UNC a 3-1 lead. One out later, Gavin Gallaher's bloop single to left plated Harber to put the Tar Heels ahead by three.
The Mountaineers got a run back in the fourth as Brodie Kresser touched home plate just beneath Stevenson's tag, scoring from first on West's base hit to cut the UNC lead to 4-2.
TEAM NOTES
• The Tar Heels improved to 16-8 all-time in Super Regional play and 13-6 at Boshamer Stadium.
• UNC won its second straight game in its final at-bat and third time in the NCAA Tournament. Four of the Tar Heels' last seven wins have won in their final at-bat.
• Carolina improved to 8-3 in game one of the Super Regional, including 7-2 at Boshamer Stadium. UNC has advanced to the College World Series all eight times when winning the first game of the Super Regional.
• Carolina improved to 9-2 all-time against West Virginia.
• The Tar Heels are 36-3 (.923) at home this season. A win on Saturday would give this team the highest home winning percentage in stadium history.
ANTHONY DONOFRIO
• Extended his career-long hitting streak to 13 games.
VANCE HONEYCUTT
• Hit the first walk-off home run of his career and second game-winning home run of the season. He hit a two-run homer against East Carolina on Feb. 23 in the eighth to give the Tar Heels a 2-1 win.
• Honeycutt became the fourth player in ACC history to hit 62 home runs.
• He hit his 25th home run of the season, tying his single-season school record, which he set as a freshman in 2022.
MATT POSTON
• Earned his second postseason win.
• Recorded his second-longest outing of the season and longest since throwing 3.1 innings at Virginia on Apirl 6.
• It was the most hitless innings he's pitched since throwing 3.0 scoreless against Boston College last season (4/2/1/23).
COLBY WILKERSON
• Hit his first career home run in 323 at-bats at Boshamer Stadium.
Game two will be Saturday at 8 p.m. A win by the Tar Heels would send them to their 12th College World Series in search of their first title. A win by the Mountaineers would force a winner-take-all game on Sunday.
"Credit [Coach Wierzbicki], he had a good report," Honeycutt said. "That tends to happen. We normally have pretty good reports on the guys. We knew he had a fastball and slider and that's what we knew he was going to attack us with."
UNC (46-14) entered the ninth down by a run. Luke Stevenson homered to lead off the inning, tying the game.
After Derek Clark struck out Johnny Castagnozzi, Alex Madera singled up the middle to put the winning run on base. Clark gave way to Aidan Major, striking out Colby Wilkerson, who homered in the seventh, to bring Honeycutt to plate.
"They have definitely bought into what we preach from the first day; just keep playing," said UNC head coach Scott Forbes. "I really challenged them this weekend, even more than last weekend, to try to shrink it down all the way to every individual pitch and keep your eyes forward.
"Our guys also know they can't be looking in the rear view mirror," Forbes said. "And this team is just kind of been how they've been all year. They've found different ways to win and that's the mark of a good team, top to bottom."
Matt Poston (5-2) threw three scoreless innings and struck out four.
Derek Clark (8-3) threw 144 pitches in 8 1/3 innings and allowed seven runs – all earned – with seven hits, three walks, while striking out eight.
WVU took the lead with four runs in the sixth. Reed Chumley and Kyle West each hit two-run homers to turn the Mountaineers' two-run deficit into a two-run lead, 6-4.
West hit his first of two homers in the third to give WVU (36-23) a 1-0 lead, but the Tar Heels answered with four runs in the bottom of the frame.
Parks Harber's one-out bases-loaded single gave UNC a 3-1 lead. One out later, Gavin Gallaher's bloop single to left plated Harber to put the Tar Heels ahead by three.
The Mountaineers got a run back in the fourth as Brodie Kresser touched home plate just beneath Stevenson's tag, scoring from first on West's base hit to cut the UNC lead to 4-2.
TEAM NOTES
• The Tar Heels improved to 16-8 all-time in Super Regional play and 13-6 at Boshamer Stadium.
• UNC won its second straight game in its final at-bat and third time in the NCAA Tournament. Four of the Tar Heels' last seven wins have won in their final at-bat.
• Carolina improved to 8-3 in game one of the Super Regional, including 7-2 at Boshamer Stadium. UNC has advanced to the College World Series all eight times when winning the first game of the Super Regional.
• Carolina improved to 9-2 all-time against West Virginia.
• The Tar Heels are 36-3 (.923) at home this season. A win on Saturday would give this team the highest home winning percentage in stadium history.
ANTHONY DONOFRIO
• Extended his career-long hitting streak to 13 games.
VANCE HONEYCUTT
• Hit the first walk-off home run of his career and second game-winning home run of the season. He hit a two-run homer against East Carolina on Feb. 23 in the eighth to give the Tar Heels a 2-1 win.
• Honeycutt became the fourth player in ACC history to hit 62 home runs.
• He hit his 25th home run of the season, tying his single-season school record, which he set as a freshman in 2022.
MATT POSTON
• Earned his second postseason win.
• Recorded his second-longest outing of the season and longest since throwing 3.1 innings at Virginia on Apirl 6.
• It was the most hitless innings he's pitched since throwing 3.0 scoreless against Boston College last season (4/2/1/23).
COLBY WILKERSON
• Hit his first career home run in 323 at-bats at Boshamer Stadium.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Poston, Matt (5-2)
L: Clark, Derek (8-3)
Batting:
HR: Chumley, Reed 1 ; West, Kyle 2
RBI: Chumley, Reed 2 ; West, Kyle 4
SH: White, Sam 1
Base Running:
RUNS: White, Sam 1 ; Chumley, Reed 1 ; Hussey, Grant 1 ; Kresser, Brodie 1 ; West, Kyle 2
SB: Wetherholt, JJ 1
HBP: Wetherholt, JJ 1 ; Sauve, Logan 2 ; Kresser, Brodie 1
Batting:
HR: Honeycutt, Vance 1 ; Stevenson, Luke 1 ; Wilkerson, Colby 1
RBI: Honeycutt, Vance 2 ; Harber, Parks 2 ; Gallaher, Gavin 1 ; Stevenson, Luke 1 ; Wilkerson, Colby 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Honeycutt, Vance 2 ; Cook, Casey 1 ; Harber, Parks 1 ; Stevenson, Luke 1 ; Madera, Alex 1 ; Wilkerson, Colby 2
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
5
R
2
H
2
RBI
2
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
2
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
INF
/ BaseballINF
/ BaseballINF
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
INF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
C
/ Baseball
INF
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