By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — Vance Honeycutt’s prodigious power seized control of a pitcher’s duel to knock back the challenge of reigning champion LSU.
Honeycutt hit a pair of home runs to left field off likely high draft pick Luke Holman, powering No. 6 UNC to a 6–2 Chapel Hill Regional victory over the No. 22 Tigers before a raucous capacity Boshamer Stadium crowd Saturday night.
Sophomore left-hander Dalton Pence closed the door, pitching 2⅔ hitless innings, striking out two, to earn his seventh save.
UNC (44–13) plays at 6 p.m. Sunday against the winner of the noon Sunday elimination game between LSU (41–22) and Wofford (42–19), with junior right-hander Aidan Haugh (4–1, 4.07 ERA) starting for the Tar Heels. The Tar Heels can put away the regional title with a victory and would play a deciding game against that team on Monday with a loss on Sunday night.
“That was a huge swing of the bat for a no-doubter,” UNC coach Scott Forbes said of Honeycutt’s first homer. “Just an electric player. We’re fortunate to have him here, and then another big swing of the bat.”
The first was a towering 413-foot blast over the netting in the fifth inning, and the second went 428 feet on an off-speed pitch in the seventh inning to end Holman’s night after his 109th pitch. UNC has hit a school-record 109 home runs.
“He got me the first two times, and I wasn’t on the fastball,” Honeycutt said after Holman struck him out in his first two at-bats. “So, I went up there just committed to the fastball and got one.”
Carolina’s all-time home run leader, Honeycutt became the sixth player in ACC history to hit at least 60 home runs. He now has 61, including 24 this season. It was his fourth multi-homer game this season and program-tying seventh for his career.
Honeycutt, who ended a six-game home-run drought and was 0 for 6 with four strikeouts in the regional before the first blast, admitted that he may have been pressing too much.
“I guess for confidence, they’re big,” Honeycutt said.
The first homer was a boost and a momentum-changer.
“It’s incredible how hard he hits the ball and how far it goes,” said UNC starter Shea Sprague, who pitched 4⅓ strong innings. “So, it’s a lot of fun to watch and I’m glad he’s in our lineup.”
Honeycutt’s fifth-inning homer came after an Alex Madera single and a Colby Wilkerson double off of first baseman Jared Jones’ glove.
“Great ball game,” Forbes said. “Unbelievable crowd. That’s as good an atmosphere is we’ve had two nights in a row at the Bosh. I expect to be like that again on Sunday night.”
UNC got three huge double plays to get out of jams, although one came with controversy.
Carolina got a big break in the top of the second when it got an inning-ending double play after a base umpire ruled that LSU baserunner Alex Milazzo interfered with shortstop Wilkerson. The hitter, Jake Brown, beat the throw at first but was ruled out. Even though it didn’t appear to be interference, the call stood after a reply review. The Tigers would have had runners at first and third with two out.
Sprague (four hits, two walks, three strikeouts) came out after giving up a leadoff walk and a one-out single in the fifth inning. The junior left-hander threw 93 pitches before giving way to senior right-hander Ben Peterson, who elicited a Tommy White inning-ending double play on the first pitch.
“Just going out with my best stuff,” Sprague said. “Just going out there with confidence and doing our thing. Myself, Ben picking me up there and DP shutting the door, it’s fun to watch.”
LSU coach Jay Johnson praised Sprague.
“He’s tough. He has a good change-up,” he said. “One of the better ones I’ve seen in a while, to be honest. I thought we did a great job of making him work. He was out of the game before the fifth inning, we just didn’t capitalize.”
Peterson (winner, 3–2) gave up three singles in the seventh and came out after a one-out walk that forced in LSU’s first run. Pence came on and walked in a second run before UNC got another inning-ending double play to keep the lead at 3–2.
That came off an off-speed pitch that Pence got over effectively against LSU.
“Our main focus was off-speed stuff and secondary pitches and that helps take pressure off the fastball,” Pence said. “The more I use it, the better it gets.”
Then came Honeycutt’s second homer in the seventh inning with two outs.
“I thought it was huge,” Forbes said. “[Holman] was about to have a really quick inning. They had the momentum after they scored those two. It was [an] 0-2 [count] and, boom, just a bazooka. That’s deflating. I thought that really gave us all the momentum back.”
Honeycutt said Holman didn’t really pitch him differently.
“Not necessarily,” Honeycutt said. “He just left it a little bit over the plate and [I was] just fortunate to get a pretty good pitch to hit. I think I fouled off a slider right before. Kind of pulled off a little bit, similar location but stayed down.”
UNC added two insurance runs in the eighth inning on Gavin Gallaher’s RBI single (after an intentional walk to get to him) and Madera’s groundout.
NOTES — The other ACC players with at least 60 home runs are Wake Forest’s Brock Wilken (71) Florida State’s J.D. Drew (69), Anthony Maisano of Georgia Tech and Wake Forest (69), N.C. State’s Pat Clougherty (61) and Wake Forest’s Nick Kurtz (61). … Honeycutt tied Chris Maples’ UNC program record of seven multi-homer games. … The Tar Heels passed the previous school single-season homer record of 108 in 2002. … The stadium was packed and fans without a ticket were watching from many locations — outside the fence around the right-field foul pole, from the Karen Shelton Stadium camera platform and from the top of its stands. … UNC is 4–2 all-time against LSU, but Saturday’s win was the Tar Heels’ first outside of the College World Series. … The crowd was announced as 3,919.
No. 6 UNC 6, No. 24 LSU 2
Chapel Hill Regional
At Boshamer Stadium
Friday’s results
No. 1 North Carolina 4, Holy Cross 0
No. 2 Oklahoma 7, No. 3 Nebraska 4
Saturday’s results
Nebraska 4, Holy Cross 1; Holy Cross eliminated
North Carolina 11, Oklahoma 5
Sunday’s results
Oklahoma 17, Nebraska 1; Nebraska eliminated
Oklahoma 9, North Carolina 5
Monday’s result
North Carolina 14, Oklahoma 4
UNC (45–13) advances to Super Regional against No. 21-ranked Arizona (42–18), which won the Eugene Regional on Sunday night with a 14–0 win over Cal Poly. Game 1 of the best-of-3 series is Friday at Boshamer Stadium.
UNC career home run leaders
| Player | Seasons | Games | Homers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vance Honeycutt | 2022–24 | 176 | 65 |
| Devy Bell | 1984–87 | 205 | 57 |
| Chris Cox | 1990–93 | 192 | 49 |
| Mac Horvath | 2021–23 | 160 | 47 |
| Alberto Osuna | 2022–24 | 176 | 45 |
| Chad Flack | 2005–08 | 267 | 42 |
| Sean Farrell | 2000–03 | 240 | 40 |
| Jarrett Shearin | 1996–99 | 241 | 40 |
| Cookie Massey | 1993–94 | 108 | 40 |
UNC scores
| Date(s) | Day/ month | Scores | Opponent (current rank) | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February | ||||
| 14–15 | Fri.-Sat. | W, 5–1; W, 8–3; W, 4–2 | vs. Texas Tech | 3–0 |
| 18 | Tuesday | W, 12–9 | vs. Kansas State | 4–0 |
| 22–24 | Sat.-Mon. | W, 2–0; W, 11–6; W, 6–4 | vs. East Carolina (DBAP, CH, G’ville) | 7–0 |
| 25 | Tuesday | W, 7–4 | vs. VCU | 8–0 |
| 26 | Wednesday | W, 13–4 | vs. N.C. A&T | 9–0 |
| 28 | Friday | W, 16–2 | vs. Stony Brook | 10–0 |
| March | ||||
| 1–2 | Sat.-Sun. | W, 6–1; W, 9–5 | vs. Stony Brook | 12–0 |
| 4 | Tuesday | W, 6–4 (11) | vs. No. 11 Coastal Carolina | 13–0 |
| 7–9 | Fri.-Sun. | L, 13–9; W, 11–1 (7); L, 7–0 | vs. Stanford | 14–2, 1–2 ACC |
| 11 | Tuesday | W, 7–3 (10) | at UNCW | 15–2 |
| 14, 16 | Fri., Sun. | L, 8–7; W, 6–4; L, 5–0 | at Louisville | 16–4, 2–4 |
| 19 | Wednesday | L, 5–1 | vs. UConn | 16–5 |
| 21–23 | Fri.-Sun. | W, 5–1; L, 3–2; W, 10–0 (7) | at Boston College | 18–6, 4–5 |
| 25 | Tuesday | W, 13–8 | vs. South Carolina in Charlotte | 19–7 |
| 28–30 | Fri.-Sun. | W, 2–0; W, 4–2; L, 4–2 | vs. Miami | 21–7, 6–6 |
| April | ||||
| 1 | Tuesday | W, 11–1 (7) | vs. Gardner-Webb | 22–7 |
| 3–5 | Thur.-Sat. | W, 4–3; L, 9–5; W, 8–7 (14) | vs. Duke | 24–8, 8–7 |
| 8 | Tuesday | W, 12–10 | at Elon | 25–8 |
| 11–13 | Fri.-Sun. | W, 11–1 (7); W, 17–1 (7); W, 3–2 | vs. Wake Forest | 28–8, 11–7 |
| 15 | Tuesday | W, 14–4 (8) | vs. Charlotte | 29–8 |
| 18–20 | Fri-Sun. | W, 9–6; L, 10–6: W, 7–5 | at Virginia Tech | 31–9, 13–8 |
| 25–27 | Fri.-Sun. | W, 15–5; L, 4–2; W, 6–0 | at Pittsburgh | 33–10, 15–9 |
| 29 | Tuesday | W, 13–4 | vs. George Mason | 34–10 |
| 30 | Wednesday | W, 14–3 | vs. Queens | 35–10 |
| May | ||||
| 6 | Tuesday | W, 10–1 | vs. Campbell | 36–10 |
| 8–9 | Thurs.-Fri. | W, 8–1; L, 8–5 | vs. N.C. State | 37–11, 16–10 |
| 15–17 | Thurs.-Sat. | W, 8–3; W, 11–1 (7); L, 5–4 | at No. 7 Florida State | 39–12, 18–11 |
| ACC tournament | Durham | |||
| 23 | Friday | Quarterfinal: W, 7–3 | Boston College | 40–12 |
| 24 | Saturday | Semifinal: W, 7–5 | No. 7 Florida State | 41–12 |
| 25 | Sunday | Final: W, 14–4 | No. 14 Clemson | 42–12 |
| Chapel Hill Regional | ||||
| 30 | Friday | W, 4–0 | Holy Cross | 43–12 |
| 31 | Saturday | W, 11–5 | Oklahoma | 44–12 |
| June | ||||
| 1 | Sunday | L, 9–5 | Oklahoma | 44–13 |
| 2 | Monday | W, 14–4 | Oklahoma | 45–13 |
| Chapel Hill Super Regional | Best-of-3 series | |||
| 6 | Friday | W, 18–2 | No. 21 Arizona | 46–13 |
| 7 | Saturday | L, 10–8 | No. 21 Arizona | 46–14 |
| 8 | Sunday | L, 4–3 | No. 21 Arizona | 46–15 |
Photos by Smith Hardy
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