Virginia baseball team falls in College World Series opener walk-off fashion to UNC on Vance Honeycutt’s game-winning hit

OMAHA, Neb. — This appearance in the College World Series has started painfully similar to the last for Virginia.

North Carolina star Vance Honeycutt’s RBI single in the bottom of the ninth sent the No. 12-seed Cavaliers to a demoralizing 3-2 walk-off loss to the No. 4-seed Tar Heels on Friday afternoon to open action in Omaha at Charles Schwab Field.

UNC (48-14) advances to the winner’s bracket contest while UVa (46-16) will play in an elimination bout on Sunday against either top-seeded Tennessee or No. 8-seed Florida State. The Cavaliers were eliminated in only two games in the 2023 College World Series after they were walked-off in their first game against Florida.

The home ninth began with pinch hitter Jackson Van De Brake’s leadoff single down the right-field line against Hoos reliever Chase Hungate. The next hitter, Alex Madera sacrificed Van De Brake to second and Hungate retired Colby Wilkerson on a pop out before Honeycutt lined a single over the head of Cavaliers shortstop Griff O’Ferrall to win the contest.

UVa held a 2-1 lead in the sixth but couldn’t hold it.

Even after Virginia sophomore starter Evan Blanco, in the seventh inning, retired Honeycutt for the fourth time on Friday. Honeycutt grounded out of the second out with a runner on, but Casey Cook followed by singling home Madera to tie the score, 2-2, and end Blanco’s outing.

And Blanco was as good against the Tar Heels as he was in the regular season.

Friday marked his second straight postseason outing in which he worked into the seventh inning. He earned a win against Kansas State in Game 1 of the Charlottesville Super Regional, which was his seventh start in 10 outings that lasted at least six innings. And that stretch began with 6.1 innings of two-run ball against the same Tar Heels in April.

The left-hander overcame falling behind by a run in the first winning by rattling off five straight scoreless innings improving as the contest went on. He didn’t record a 1-2-3 frame until the sixth inning when he plowed through Carolina’s 5-6-7 hitters before striking out slugging designated hitter Alberto Osuna for the third time in the game.

The Cavaliers went in front of the Tar Heels, 2-1, in the top half of the inning on Griff O’Ferrall’s sacrifice fly that sent Henry Godbout home with the go-ahead run. Godbout started that sixth with a walk and got to third on Eric Becker’s opposite-field double scorched into the left-field corner.

That didn’t hold up, though.

The Hoos couldn’t add to their lead against UNC reliever Dalton Pence, who earned the win with 3.1 scoreless frames from the sixth through the ninth which bought the Tar Heels offense the time it needed to eventually win.