By R.L. Bynum

CHAPEL HILL — When the long drive finally rested in the glove of UNC center fielder Vance Honeycutt, No. 6 North Carolina could finally exhale after surviving a heart-pumping night to oust the reigning NCAA champions.

Workhorse reliever Dalton Pence finished the game with 3⅔ shutout innings, and Alex Madera’s single up the middle in the 10th inning gave No. 4 overall seed UNC a thrilling 4–3 victory in the Chapel Hill Region championship game.

Josh Pearson, as the potential winning run for No. 24 LSU, hit a Pence fastball near the center field warning track, forcing hearts to flutter among Tar Heels fans worried that the ball might carry. But Honeycutt’s catch put away the title.

“I was like, ‘man, please stay in the park,’ ” UNC coach Scott Forbes said. “When I saw Vance, I felt a little better. It’s a little bit stressful, and then it all pours out at the end.”

The Tar Heels (45–14), who rallied in the ninth inning twice during the regional, will host West Virginia (36–22) in a best-of-three Super Regional this weekend beginning Friday or Saturday. UNC is two wins away from returning to the College World Series.

“I feel like we had some of that Bosh magic tonight,” said Forbes, whose team is 35–3 at home this season. “And a lot of that was our crowd. When A-Mad got that hit, that might be the loudest I’ve ever heard Boshamer Stadium, and that’s just something that really makes me smile.”

It was UNC’s only two-out hit of the game.

There were a couple of recent games, including the ACC tournament loss to Wake Forest, when Pence (winner, 4–1) had the opponent down to the final strike but couldn’t get the last out. But he came through on his 58th pitch of the night and 117th in three regional appearances.

“It was the best feeling I’ve felt,” Pence said. “I wasn’t feeling anything at that moment. It was great.”

Pence had the respect of LSU coach Jay Johnson.

“He’s really good,” Johnson said. “He’s got an elite arm, the right fastball, and hec an really throw it where he wants to — up, down, on both sides of the plate. Then, the secondary stuff was good enough tonight to get us off of that. He made it really hard.”

Closing out the game was huge for Pence.

“It meant a lot to me,” Pence said. “I sat out my freshman year with an injury and then came back last year and this has just been a special year. I feel like this pitching staff, working with these coaches and this program with it’s rich history, we want to keep that going so it means the world to me.”

To finish off LSU (43–23), Carolina had to rally against Tigers junior ace Gage Jump (loser, 6–2). The likely first-round draft pick made his first career relief appearance three days after throwing 102 pitches against Wofford, trying to preserve a one-run lead.

There was no way that a guy named Jump who wears No. 23 was going to deny the home of the Jumpman.

UNC third baseman Gavin Gallaher, who finished the game at first base and was named the tournament’s most outstanding player, greeted him with a double to left field to lead off the ninth inning. Madera bunted with two strikes, and it went foul by inches, just to the left of the third-base bag for a strikeout, but Colby Wilkerson hit a 2–2 pitch to left field for an RBI single to tie it.

In the 10th, it all came together with two outs after Johnny Castagnozzi hit a drive that right fielder Jake Brown couldn’t handle at the warning track. Pinch-runner Jackson Van De Brake scored the go-ahead run on Madera’s single up the middle.

“[Castagnozzi] got that hit, and everything started turning, and it’s like, all right, we have a real chance to score here,” Madera said. “[Jump] threw a couple of fastballs early in the count. So, when it got the three-two, I kind of just sold out for the fastball. I told myself, ‘’He’s throwing 96, I’m not gonna let myself get beat by a fastball here.’ So, I just jumped on it and luckily hit it up the middle.”

Madera (2 for 4) led the way as the bottom of the order came up big, with Wilkerson also getting a big hit and Gallaher going 1 for 4.

“That’s why our lineup is so good,” Forbes said. “We’ve got speed distributed, power distributed. Right, left, right, left throughout, and that can be hard. I’ve been coaching a long time. It’s hard to make decisions pitching-wise when you get lefty and then a righty.”

LSU starter Samuel Dutton’s outing lasted as long as his first on Saturday against UNC: three batters. He exited in the first inning after giving up singles to Honeycutt, Casey Cook and Parks Harber. Reliever Javen Coleman walked in a run and a second run came home on Alberto Osuna’s double play.

Carolina wouldn’t score again, and only got two more hits, until the ninth inning.

After throwing 65 pitches over four innings in UNC’s 11–8 Friday win over Long Island, Jason DeCaro threw 41 pitches Monday, giving up two hits, two runs, no walks with two strikeouts in two innings.

Tommy White led off the LSU first inning with a single up the middle and, after a hit batsman and a wild pitch, scored on a groundout. Tigers center fielder Jake Brown tied it with a two-out, solo home run to left-center field in the second inning that traveled 408 feet.

Reliever Matthew Matthijs’ third batter, first baseman Jared Jones, hit a 383-foot drive over the right-center field wall for his team-leading 28th home run and a 3–2 LSU lead. That was the only hiccup for Matthijs, who pitched a career-high 4⅓ innings, giving up two hits, walking none, striking out three and retiring his last 11 batters.

When Matthijs retired LSU in order in the fourth inning, that was the earliest a UNC pitcher had done it against LSU in three games this regional. The Tigers went down in order in the final two innings in each of the first two meetings.

Fifth-year senior right-hander Will Helmers retired 12 straight Tar Heels before Madera led off the seventh with a single to right field, ending a stretch of 20 consecutive batters retired combined for both teams.

Pence relieved Matthijs with one out in the seventh and retired the first two batters to extend LSU’s hitless drought to 13 at-bats.

Helmers, who gave up two hits and two walks and struck out four in 5⅔ innings, exited after walking Harber to lead off the eighth inning. Reliever Nate Ackenhausen struck out the next three batters, the last two — Alberto Osuna and pinch hitter Castagnozzi — swinging on 3–2 pitches.

NOTES — UNC advanced to its 11th Super Regional and second in three seasons, the 10th time the Tar Heels have advanced after winning their first two regional games. … Carolina is 3-2 all-time in winner-take-all regional games, previously beating Florida Atlantic 13-12 in 12 innings in 2013 and VCU 7-3 in 2022, losing 3–1 to South Carolina in 2002 and 7-4 to Miami in 1998. … Carolina is 13–5 in regional play against SEC opponents other than South Carolina (5–11). … LSU is the fourth opponent UNC has faced three times in a regional after Penn State in 2000, South Carolina in 2002 and VCU in 2022. … Hubert Davis was at the game. … Fans began waiting at the stadium ticket window at 7:30 a.m. … Tar Heels making the all-tournament team in addition to Gallaher were Donofrio, Osuna and Pence. Five LSU players — catcher Alex Milazzo, first baseman Jared Jones, second baseman Steven Milam, shortstop Michael Braswell III, left fielder Josh Pearson and pitcher Griffin Herring — made the team as well as Wofford’s Andrew Mannelly. … West Virginia’s RPI of 37 is 14 lower than LSU’s 23.

---

No. 6 UNC 4, No. 24 LSU 3, 10 innings

---

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 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 courtesy of UNC Athletics