OMAHA, Neb. — Vance Honeycutt's single brought Jackson Van De Brake home from third with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and North Carolina recorded another victory in its final at-bat, a 3-2 victory. over Virginia in the first game of the Men's College World Series on Friday.
The Tar Heels (48-14) advanced to play Sunday against the winner of Friday night's Bracket 1 game between Florida State and Tennessee. Virginia (46-16) faces the loser of Florida State-Tennessee in an elimination game on Sunday.
Four of North Carolina's six NCAA Tournament wins came in its final at-bat. Honeycutt earned a win in the first super regional game last week against West Virginia, with a home run in the bottom of the ninth.
“You shouldn't always feel like he's going to come out ahead, but that's how I felt,” said Casey Cook, who watched from the on-deck circle as Honeycutt landed the winning blow. “That's how things have been going lately. Everyone in the dugout knew he was going to pull through.”
The result was another disappointment for Virginia, which has lost five straight MCWS games dating to 2021, each of the last three by one run.
“We're frustrated because we just don't think we played a very good baseball game today,” Cavaliers coach Brian O'Connor said. “I don't want to take anything away from North Carolina. They pitched very, very well. What I'm talking about are little things, missed signals. Your margin for error is very small. You have to be on top of everything to win in Omaha. , and we weren't today. To North Carolina's credit, they were enough and won the game.”
Van De Brake, a .194 hitter whose last hit came against Pittsburgh on May 23, pinch-hit for Alberto Osuna leading off the bottom of the ninth and lined a drive down the right field line for a double against Chase Hungate.
Johnny Castagnozzi has typically been the Tar Heels' choice to pinch-hit, but hitting coach Jesse Wierbicki told coach Scott Forbes that he felt good about Van De Brake hitting for Osuna.
“The thing about Vanny is he's not an all-or-nothing guy,” Forbes said. “He doesn't have a high batting average, but he's got some craft, he can bunt and he can run. We felt like it's hard to hit a home run in this park, and we felt like we needed that spark.”
Van De Brake advanced to third on Alex Madera's sacrifice bunt, and Colby Wilkerson fouled out the catcher to bring up a projected first-round pick in Honeycutt.
O'Connor elected to have Hungate (7-2) throw to Honeycutt instead of intentionally walking him with Cook next. Cook was 3-for-4 and hit .345, best on the team. Honeycutt was 0-for-4 when he came up to bat.
“It was the right matchup,” O'Connor said. “I think Cook is their best hitter in the lineup. It wasn't an option for us to walk Honeycutt. Honeycutt is a great player and has a lot of home runs, but I felt like we handled him well all day and The Cover Boy had a day. fantastic”.
Honeycutt launched a 2-1 pitch just over shortstop Griff O'Ferrall's glove into left field, driving Van De Brake home and prompting the rest of the Tar Heels to come out of the dugout to harass Honeycutt behind from second base.
“Coach 'Wierz' had a really good approach for us, and I just wanted to go slow, try to slow myself down,” Honeycutt said. “And I got a good 2-0 pitch and got out of there. I got the same 2-1 pitch and was down.”
Dalton Pence (5-1) replaced Matt Poston after Virginia took a 2-1 lead on Griff O'Ferrall's sacrifice fly in the sixth. Pence (5-1) allowed no hits in 3⅓ innings and stretched his scoreless inning streak in the NCAA Tournament to 12⅓.
Virginia won two of three against the Tar Heels in April and came to Omaha batting .336, second nationally, and averaging 9.4 runs per game. The Cavaliers matched their season low with five hits, left 10 runners on base and went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position. Twelve of the Cavaliers' last 13 batters failed to reach base.
“The message is: be better,” O'Connor said. “I know what these kids are made of. They've bounced back all year. I know they'll be better on Sunday.”
