OMAHA – The late-inning magic continued for North Carolina, and this time, it came at the expense of one of the team’s former ACC rivals.
All-American outfielder Vance Honeycutt hit a two-out single that was just out of reach of Virginia shortstop Griff O’Ferrall in the bottom of the ninth to give the Tar Heels a 3-2 victory Friday afternoon at the opening game of the men’s College World Series.
Three of North Carolina’s six NCAA Tournament wins have been playoffs.
“He’s shown in his career that he enjoys the big moment,” North Carolina coach Scott KeynoteUSA said. “He invites the big moment.”
Virginia, which lost both of its CWS games last June, will play an elimination game against the loser of the Tennessee-Florida State game at 2 p.m. Sunday.
“Very disappointed. We’re frustrated because we just don’t think we played a very good baseball game today,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “I don’t want to take anything away from North Carolina: They pitched very, very well.”
Virginia entered Friday ranked second in the country with a .336 batting average. But the Cavaliers managed just five hits as North Carolina’s bullpen retired 12 of the final 13 batters it faced.
“Evenly matched. They just did a little more little things than we did,” said O’Connor, whose team began the week averaging 9.4 runs per game. “We left 10 runners on base and just didn’t take advantage.”
The game went into the bottom of the ninth tied at 2. North Carolina pinch-hitter Jackson Van De Brake, who came into the tournament with a .194 average, led off by cutting a double down the right field line.
He was on third base with two outs when Honeycutt, who hit a clutch home run in the Chapel Hill superregional against West Virginia, hit the winner to left field against Chase Hungate.
There aren’t many secrets between the Cavaliers and Tar Heels, two of the four ACC teams in the field; the other four are from the SEC.
Virginia took two of three games from the Tar Heels when they met in the regular season in early April. In the middle game of that series, the Cavaliers’ Evan Blanco struck out seven and outscored Jason DeCaro as Virginia scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh to pull away and win 7-2. Those two were the headlines on Friday, although neither would figure in the decision.
The Cavaliers had a chance to attack DeCaro early as the rookie struggled with his control during a 30-pitch first inning.
DeCaro hit a batter and walked two to load the bases with two outs. Harrison Didawick took a 3-1 lead, but DeCaro came back to strike him out and end the threat.
“I thought in the first inning the story of the game was the strikeout against Didawick,” KeynoteUSA said. “If they score right there, have a great tackle, it would be difficult in this stadium. But our pitching did the same thing they’ve been doing. “They kept us within striking distance.”
North Carolina (48-14) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the inning when Parks Harber’s double into the left-field corner was followed by Anthony Donofrio’s RBI groundout.
DeCaro didn’t allow a hit until the Cavaliers had three with one out in the third. Virginia (46-16) tied it when Henry Ford turned right to score Ethan Anderson, but the Cavaliers again stranded a runner at third base. It was Ford’s team-leading 69th RBI.
Virginia left seven runners on base against DeCaro before he was lifted in the fifth after throwing 89 pitches.
The Cavaliers took the lead in the sixth after Henry Godbout walked and then Eric Becker went the other way for a double down the left field line. Two batters later, O’Ferrall’s fly ball to center brought Godbout home.
North Carolina responded in the seventh against Blanco. With a runner on second and one out, Blanco got Honeycutt to ground out on nine pitches. But Casey Cook followed with his third hit of the day, a single to left field to score Alex Madera.
That set the stage for Honeycutt, who gave the Tar Heels a victory in their first return to Omaha since 2018.
O’Connor, whose contract extension through 2031 was announced Thursday, has led Virginia to the CWS seven times in his 21 seasons as coach, but his team is now on a three-game losing streak in Omaha, each by one career.
O’Ferrall said the key on Sunday will be to not let the moment get too big.
“Without looking at the games ahead, I think that’s the most important thing,” the shortstop said. “The only thing we can control is winning the next game. So let’s take it one at a time. Like coach said, we need to do the little things that got us here in the first place. “If we can control what we can control, take one game at a time, then we have a chance to do it again.”
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