UNC Moves One Win From Super Regionals on Vance Honeycutt’s Homers

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina moved one victory away from reaching the super regional round of the NCAA Tournament, on the strength of two enormous swings from Vance Honeycutt.

The Tar Heels defeated LSU 6-2 in Saturday’s showdown game at Boshamer Stadium, with Honeycutt swatting a pair of gigantic home runs to propel the profitable victory, as UNC gained control of the regional in front of another packed house here.

Honeycutt had been 0-for-6 at the plate with four strikeouts in this Chapel Hill Regional, before nuking a monster three-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning, finally breaking the scoreless tie that had persisted. The Tar Heels jumped ahead 3-0 when Honeycutt hammered the first pitch of that at-bat, a 413-foot shot with a sizzling exit velocity of 111 mph.

He went deep again in the bottom of the seventh inning for his 24th home run of the season, which provided some key breathing room after LSU trimmed Carolina’s lead to 3-2 in the top of the inning. That bomb become nearly identical to his first home run, this one a 428-footer traveling 107 mph off the bat.

Honeycutt made the Tigers pay for perhaps a questionable decision there. LSU coach Jay Johnson stuck with the co-ace Luke Holman, the tiring starters whose 109th pitch of the game served up Honeycutt’s second blast.

UNC (44-13), the No. 4 national seed in the NCAA field, now awaits the LSU-Wofford winner at 6 p.m. Sunday. One more victory clinches this regional for the Tar Heels. On Sunday afternoon, LSU (41-22) meets Wofford (42-19) in a noon elimination game.

In the bottom of the eighth inning on Saturday, Gavin Gallaher’s bases-loaded single and Alex Madera’s run-scoring grounder supplied more insurance, as the Tar Heels went ahead 6-2.