Baseball Season Review: By The Numbers
July 3, 2024 | Baseball
A remarkable 2024 season came to a close at the College World Series in Omaha on June 18. Records were broken, stars emerged, championships were won and memories were made.
Here are some of the key numbers to know when looking back at an unforgettable campaign:
.925: UNC recorded the third-highest home winning percentage in the country with a 37-3 record at Boshamer Stadium.
.750: The Tar Heels produced the fifth-highest winning percentage in the country with a 48-16 overall record. It was the 10th time since 1983 that Carolina won 75 percent of its games, with its highest winning percentage since 2017 (.773).
.714: Vance Honeycutt became the seventh player in program history to slug over .700 during a single season. He posted the fifth-highest slugging percentage at UNC and tops since Dustin Ackley in 2009 (.763).
.524: Carolina posted the second-highest slugging percentage in program history with 1,159 total bases, including 246 extra-base hits (116 2B, 15 3B, 115 HR).
2: Honeycutt repeated as ACC Defensive Player of the Year and became the first two-time recipient of the award.
2.07: Shea Sprague posted the second-lowest walks per nine innings average in the ACC.
3: Parks Harber became the first Tar Heel to hit three home runs in a game since 2002, going deep in three consecutive at-bats against Wake Forest (3/30).
3: North Carolina became the first team in the Super Regional era to have a walk-off win in its first game of a regional, Super Regional and College World Series.
4: Harber, Honeycutt, Matthew Matthijs and Dalton Pence were named to at least one All-America Team.
4.30: The UNC pitching staff compiled the ACC’s lowest team ERA for the first time since 2013.
6: Honeycutt was named to six All-America teams, including four first-team selections.
6: Anthony Donofrio became the eighth Tar Heel to lead the ACC in triples (6), first since Brian Goodwin in 2010.
8: Luke Stevenson hit a pair of three-run homers, lifted a sacrifice fly and had an RBI single to become the first UNC player since at least 1998 with eight RBIs in an ACC game.
9: UNC won nine of its 13-weekend three-game series, including all seven three-game sets at Boshamer Stadium.
11: The Tar Heels landed a school-record 11 players on the All-ACC teams. Eight Tar Heels were named first, second, or third team all-conference, the most of any team, while a trio of UNC rookies landed on the ACC all-freshman team.
11: Carolina won 11 consecutive games from February 27 to March 13. It’s the longest winning streak by a Tar Heel team since 2017, when it recorded 11 straight triumphs from March 28 to April 15.
12: Matthew Matthijs led the ACC and ranked second among NCAA Division I pitchers in victories. He is the Tar Heels’ first 12-game winner since Trent Thornton in 2013.
12: UNC made its 12th appearance at the College World Series and eighth since 2006.
14: Six players combined for 14 multi-home run games, the most in program history. Cook and Donofrio each homered twice in the ACC Tournament win over Pittsburgh.
15: Carolina won its 15th overall regional and fourth in its last six NCAA appearances (2018, ’19, ’22, ’24).
20/20: For the second time in three years, Honeycutt posted a 20-20 season, hitting 28 home runs and stealing 28 bases. He hit 25 home runs and swiped 29 bases as a freshman in 2022.
22: UNC posted the best record in the ACC at 22-8 and captured its eighth Coastal Division title while claiming the top seed in the conference tournament as the league’s unofficial regular season champion.
25: Carolina won over 40 games for the 25th time in program history and the fifth time in the last seven seasons.
27: The Tar Heels set a new program record for consecutive home victories by winning their final four home games a year ago and their first 23 this season. The 23 victories are the most consecutive home wins to start a season.
28: Honeycutt reset his school record for home runs with an ACC-leading 28, three more than his previous record.
35: UNC freshmen pitchers combined to start over half of the Tar Heels’ games this season (Jason DeCaro 18, Folger Boaz 9, Olin Johnson 6, Boston Flannery 2).
45: Alberto Osuna hit 14 home runs this season to finish his three-year career at UNC ranked fifth on the school’s all-time list.
54: Harber smashed 20 home runs in his lone season with the Tar Heels to finish his career with more than 50 round-trippers.
60/70: Honeycutt became the first player in NCAA history (according to a survey of D1 baseball schools) to hit over 60 home runs (65) and steal more than 70 bases (76) in his career.
65: Honeycutt hit two home runs in the series opener against Louisville on May 10 to tie and break Devy Bell’s UNC record, eclipsing the former mark (57) by eight.
78: Casey Cook ranked third in the ACC and 11th nationally with 78 RBIs, fifth-most in school history. A year ago, Cook had just 23 RBIs in 60 games, more than tripling his total this season in only four additional games this.
88: Honeycutt set the school record for runs scored in a season, becoming the third player in program lore to surpass the 80-run plateau while leading the ACC.
115: Eleven players combined for a school-record 115 home runs, topping the century mark for the third time in program history (108 – 2002; 101 – 2022).
502: UNC hitters drove in more than 500 runs for the first time in program history. Cook and Honeycutt became the fourth pair of teammates to collect 70 or more RBIs.
541: The Tar Heels scored more than 540 runs for just the third time, finishing one run short of matching the school record set in 2013. It was the 10th time more than 500 runs have been scored by a UNC team.
3,000: UNC became the eighth program in NCAA history with 3,000 all-time victories.
113,368: Carolina drew more fans at Boshamer Stadium this year than any previous season.