Walk-off! UNC baseball scores in bottom of ninth to beat Virginia at College World Series

Casey Cook knows it’s unrealistic to expect Vance Honeycutt to deliver in every big moment. Especially when the junior centerfielder is 0 for 4.

But when the order turned over with captain Jackson Van De Brake 90 feet away from victory, Cook leaned on the dugout fence ready to hurdle it.

Honeycutt got ahead in the count, waited and delivered a two-out single to left field, driving in the winning run that gave UNC a 3-2 College World Series win over Virginia Friday.

The Tar Heels (48-14) advance to play either Florida State or Tennessee on Sunday night at 7 p.m.

After falling behind Honeycutt 2-0, Virginia righty Chase Hungate threw a slider for a strike Honeycutt invites these kinds of moments, UNC coach Scott Forbes said after his heart returned to a natural rhythm.

Hungate tried the same pitch again but left too much of a slider over the plate. Honeycutt turned on it and made the Tar Heels a winner in the CWS’ opening game.

Cook, and the rest of the Tar Heels, leaped out of the dugout and crossed the infield grass at Charles Schwab Field to chase him down.

“Vance stepped up to the plate, and I think everyone in the dugout knew he was going to come through,” Cook said. “And that’s what happened.”

Van De Brake ran home and the Tar Heels, who struggled to scrap together multiple hits in an inning for much of Friday, somehow survived against a potent team they lost two twice in April.

Honeycutt acknowledged the collective clutch effort. He was only the one on the end of the bat after Van De Brake’s ninth-inning lead-off double, Alex Madera’s sac bunt to move him over, Cook’s first RBI since Pittsburgh, freshman ace Jason DeCaro’s tightrope work and Dalton Pence’s perfect three innings in relief.

“I don’t think the moment is too big for anyone,” Honeycutt said. “Coach Forbes preaches every single day to stay with the process and that’s what we’re doing day in, day out.”

That process involved building confidence early. Cook squared a single to center in his first at-bat, advanced to third on a Harber double and scored on a Donofrio sacrifice to give UNC a 1-0 lead in the opening frame. He also ripped a single to left that scored Madera and tied the game in the seventh to break open an offensive drought.

The Tar Heels didn’t tally multiple hits in an inning between the first and seventh.

Game one could have gotten away from them if not for resilient pitching.

DeCaro allowed four hits, four walks and hit a batter across four innings. He also struck out six and stranded several Virginia batters on base. DeCaro’s fastball enticed Virginia and the Cavaliers struggled to stay on top of the 94 mile-per-hour offerings.

“In my opinion, DeCaro won that game,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “I know he only went four innings, but for him to manage some of those situations where he was walking us or hitting us and not allow a big hit to break it open was huge.”

The freshman righty reluctantly handed the ball to Matt Poston in the fifth. Poston lasted into the seventh, where Pence took over. The lefty reliever tossed 10 perfect outs of relief and held the ball from defeat to victory.

Even after the win, Pence quietly waited to field a question after Cook and Honeycutt soaked the praise.

The final question fittingly went to him.

“Just commanding the strike zone and letting my stuff work from inside the strike zone to out of it and just attacking them,” Pence said. “That’s really what I had going for me.”

Because the sophomore reliever threw less than 30 pitches, Forbes essentially confirmed Pence will be available for Sunday night’s game against the winner of Friday night’s Florida State-Tennessee game.

Maybe the heart rates will reset by then.

This story was originally published June 14, 2024 at 5:14 PM.