Tag: College World Series

Former conference rivals will be Vance Honeycutt’s new teammates

Is there an ACC baseball pipeline to the Baltimore Orioles?

If you thought the Baltimore Orioles have a thing for UNC baseball players, you’re correct.

Baltimore select Diamond Heels all-time great Vance Honeycutt with the 22nd overall pick in this year’s MLB Draft. Last year, the Orioles took North Carolina third baseman Mac Horvath 53rd overall.

Both Honeycutt and Horvath played together during the 2022 and 2023 UNC campaigns, with the duo bringing an ACC Championship to Chapel Hill in 2022. Horvath is now with the Aberdeen Ironbirds, Baltimore’s High-A affiliate, while Honeycutt waits his assignment.

It’s not just Diamond Heels players the Orioles seemingly have an affinity for.

With Baltimore’s second and third picks in the 2024 MLB Draft, they chose Virginia shortstop Griff O’Ferrall (32nd overall) and catcher Ethan Anderson (61st overall).

The Honeycutt selection is obviously a big deal, but what connection do O’Ferrall and Anderson have to UNC?

Honeycutt, O’Ferrall and Anderson all played against each other in the opening game of the College World Series.

Honeycutt was the star of North Carolina-UVA, walking things off with a 2-out single in the ninth inning and delivering the Diamond Heels a 3-2 victory. O’Ferrall and Anderson hit a combined 1-for-7, with Anderson scoring the Cavaliers’ first run and O’Ferrall driving in their second.

If I had to bet anything, there’ll be a bit of friendly trash talk between the Orioles’ new trio.

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UNC baseball team posts tribute video for memorable 2024 season

There were too many exciting moments for the UNC baseball team this year. The Diamond Heels compiled them into a shortened video on Monday.

Even though it fell short of a College World Series crown yet again, there’s no doubt the North Carolina Tar Heels made their impact in the 2024 college baseball season.

UNC finished as one of the ACC’s five 40-win teams, taking the ACC Coastal Division crown by finishing four games ahead of Virginia. North Carolina won its opening ACC Baseball Championship game against Pitt, before a loss against Wake Forest knocked it out.

The real fireworks began in the NCAA Tournament, though. The Diamond Heels trailed 4-seed Long Island University in the Chapel Hill Regional’s opening game, only for Gavin Gallaher to blast a walk-off grand slam.

Trailing by a run entering the ninth inning of the Chapel Hill Regional Final against reigning CWS champion LSU, UNC came back and won 4-3. Colby Wilkerson delivered the tying single, then Alex Madera the go-ahead base knock.

It wouldn’t be postseason heroics without superstar Vance Honeycutt, who smashed a walk-off home run against West Virginia, in Game 1 of the Chapel Hill Super Regional. This wouldn’t be Honeycutt’s only walk-off, as he later ended North Carolina’s CWS debut with a walk-off single.

With all the memorable moments in UNC’s season, including a 37-3 mark at Boshamer Stadium, it was only appropriate for the team to deliver a video tribute.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9KxgHDgZw7/

The Diamond Heels felt like they were destined for a CWS title, but a lack of offense in Omaha contributed to their downfall. Pitching injuries also didn’t help, with projected starter Jake Knapp and initial Friday starter Folger Boaz out for the year, forcing a taxed bullpen at times.

I have no doubt that with minimal losses, outside of Honeycutt, Madera and Alberto Osuna, North Carolina will be amongst the 2025 CWS favorites.

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Diamond Heels a popular early 2025 College World Series pick by D1Baseball

Likely with no Vance Honeycutt next season, can the UNC baseball team make it back to the College World Series?

The North Carolina Tar Heels sport one of the nation’s premier college baseball programs, as they’ve made the College World Series 12 times and the NCAA Tournament 36 times.

As many times as UNC has made the CWS, it has yet to win the title – even with Finals appearances in 2006 and 2007.

UNC’s most recent run to the CWS came this past season, as it clinched its trip by beating West Virginia in the Chapel Hill Super Regional. North Carolina’s CWS journey started off on a positive note, as it came from behind to beat ACC rival Virginia, 3-2.

Diamond Heels’ starting left fielder Casey Cook tied the clash at two in the seventh inning, lining a two-out single to left field himself. Jackson Van De Brake delivered a clutch pinch-hit double to start the ninth, then superstar Vance Honeycutt drove Van De Brake in with yet another walkoff.

UNC didn’t fare well in its second and third CWS games, though. North Carolina struggled offensively in a 6-1 loss to the eventual champion Tennessee Volunteers, while Diamond Heels pitching got rocked in a 9-5 elimination loss against the Florida State Seminoles.

Looking ahead to next season already, UNC is a popular, Way-Too-Early 2025 CWS pick by D1Baseball.

D1Baseball staff writers Aaron Fitt, Mike Rooney, Shotgun Spratling and Pat James, a former Daily Tar Heel and GoHeels writer, all picked the Diamond Heels as part of their Way-Too-Early 8.

LSU, whom North Carolina squeaked by to win the Chapel Hill Regional, was picked by all 10 staff writers to make the 2025 CWS. Florida was the second-most popular pick, collecting nine votes, while Arkansas joined UNC with four votes.

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Where did Duke baseball finish in the final Coaches Poll?

The Blue Devils failed to advance to the College World Series, but an ACC Tournament title kept them inside the coaches’ final top 25.

The Duke baseball season finished short of Omaha in 2024, winning one game but unable to advance from the Norman Regional.

The final USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll came out last week, reflecting the final results from the College World Series and the season as a whole. The Blue Devils tumbled down eight spots but kept a foothold within the top 25, finishing 18th.

Duke finished the season with a 40-20 record. They spent much of the season in contention for regional hosting duty, but a late-season slide dropped them behind the pace to snag one of the top 16 seeds. The Blue Devils surged through the ACC Tournament, however, scoring 16 runs in the championship game against Florida State to take their second conference tournament title in four years.

However, the selection committee still passed Durham over as a regional hosting site, producing questions and outrage from the college baseball world as analysts questioned if the decision stemmed from resources and facilities more than performance.

Tennessee, who came back after an opening loss for the national title, maintained a hold as the top team in the country.

The Seminoles (fourth), North Carolina (fifth), Virginia (seventh), NC State (eighth), and Clemson (ninth) all cracked the top 10 for the ACC.

Skip Johnson to stay with Oklahoma Sooners

Skip Johnson is set to stay as Oklahoma’s head baseball coach amid Texas A&M rumors.

Oklahoma’s baseball program and the fans around the program can take a deep breath. Skip Johnson is here to stay.

The last few weeks in the college baseball world have been a bit noisier than usual after Jim Schlossnagle surprisingly bolted from his post as the Texas A&M baseball coach for that exact position with the Texas Longhorns.

He is a two-time National Coach of the Year and, simply put, one of the best head baseball coaches in the country. After his Aggies lost in this year’s College World Series championship, he took the vacant Texas Longhorns job.

In the time that has followed, Texas A&M has been feverishly trying to find his replacement. One name that was brought up was Oklahoma’s Skip Johnson.

Reports surfaced Friday afternoon that Johnson was the guy for the Aggies. Josh Callaway of Sooners Illustrated for 247Sports and Kendall Rogers, managing editor for D1Baseball, denied them.

Today, athletic director Joe Castiglione announced that Skip Johnson will stay on as Oklahoma’s head coach and receive an extension that will run through 2029.

Johnson’s work in Norman hasn’t gone unnoticed, and he has the Sooners on an upward trajectory as it enters the SEC.

The key for Oklahoma to take the next step is to back it up financially in name, image, and likeness and upgrade the facilities to match some of the investment other SEC baseball programs receive. If the baseball team can get to that level, with Skip Johnson’s baseball insight and leadership, Oklahoma can touch unfamiliar heights in baseball.

With questions about Johnson’s future in Norman behind them, the Sooners can now focus on preparing for next season and attacking the transfer portal hard as they prepare for the first baseball season as SEC members.

Skip Johnson named ABCA Central Region Coach of the Year

Oklahoma baseball coach Skip Johnson is the ABCA Central Region Coach of the Year.

Oklahoma Sooners head baseball coach [autotag]Skip Johnson[/autotag] was been named the ABCA Central Region Coach of the Year, the university announced earlier this week.

The ABCA/ATEC Regional Coaches of the Year are selected by members of the ABCA All-America & Coach of the Year Committees in all nine divisions: NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA, NJCAA Divisions I, II and III, Pacific Association Division and high school.

Oklahoma won the program’s first [autotag]Big 12[/autotag] regular season championship and made its 41st NCAA Tournament appearance in 2024. The Sooners also hosted an NCAA Regional in Norman for the first time since 2010.

The excellent season had an impact on attendance, as plenty of attendance records were set at L. Dale Mitchell Park in 2024. Three of the top four single-game crowds in school history came through the gates, with a program single-game record 4,812 in attendance on April 26. Oklahoma also broke the single-season attendance record with 60,962 fans attending regular-season games in 2024 and a single-game postseason record crowd of 4,332 for OU’s 14-0 regional-opening win over Oral Roberts.

OU got to 40 wins for the second time in the last three seasons and 25th time in program history. On their way to winning the Big 12 regular season title, OU swept a program record six conference series, tying the Big 12 record for sweeps in a season, and finished with a program record 23 wins in Big 12 play (23-7). Those 23 wins were good for the second most conference wins in Big 12 history. OU won 23 of its final 30 games, including 14 of its last 16 conference games, with sweeps in four of the last six weekends.

In his seventh season in Norman, Johnson collected OU’s first [autotag]Big 12 Coach of the Year[/autotag] honor.

The regional coach of the year award is Johnson’s second in the last three seasons. He also received the honor in 2022 when he led the program to a runner-up finish in the [autotag]College World Series[/autotag].

With all of the talk this week about coaching movement in college baseball at a couple of programs not too far from home, Johnson remains a steadying hand ready to guide the Sooners into the [autotag]SEC[/autotag].

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Photos of Tennessee baseball celebrating 2024 national title

Photos of Tennessee celebrating 2024 baseball national championship at Market Square in Knoxville.

Tennessee defeated Texas A&M, 6-5, in game No. 3 of the College World Series Finals at Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska, on Monday.

Tennessee won the best-of-three series, 2-1, against the Aggies. The Vols won the program’s first national championship.

“Very surreal,” seventh-year Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello said after winning a national championship. “Hard to center yourself, which is a good thing, being lost in the moment, I guess. Nothing too intelligent to say other than the first thing to say is I hope the fans that have turned this into an insane party, insane event, got the series that they wanted and that they deserved.”

The Vols celebrated winning the 2024 national championship on Tuesday at Market Square in Knoxville. Below are photos of Tennessee’s celebration.

Best photos from Game 3 of the College World Series finals between Texas A&M and Tennessee

Check out the best photos that were taken last night by USA TODAY Sports photographers Steven Branscombe, Brianna Paciorka and Dylan Widger.

Despite reaching the College World Series finals for the first time in program history and decisively winning Game 1, the Texas A&M baseball team fell just short against SEC rival Tennessee on Monday night.

The top seed Volunteers (60-13) defeated the No. 3 Aggies (53-15) by a final score of 6-5 in the decisive national title game at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.

Texas A&M prevailed in the CWS finals opener 9-5 on Saturday night. Tennessee evened the series with a 4-1 victory Sunday afternoon.

The Volunteers are the first No. 1 seed to win the CWS championship in 25 years since Miami won it all in 1999. Tennessee is the fifth consecutive SEC squad to win the national title, dating back to 2019.

Dylan Dreiling earned NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player. The Volunteers sophomore outfielder racked up 3 home runs, 11 runs batted in and 13 hits.

Check out the best photos that were taken last night by USA TODAY Sports photographers Steven Branscombe, Brianna Paciorka and Dylan Widger.

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Jim Schlossnagle is reportedly leaving Texas A&M to become Texas Longhorns head coach

According to Chip Brown of 247Sports, Jim Schlossnagle is departing Aggieland with his coaching staff to become the new Longhorns coach.

Well, they often say, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” and that certainly looks to be the case when it comes to Texas A&M baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle, who is reportedly leaving College Station.

According to Chip Brown of 247Sports, Schlossnagle is departing from Aggieland to become the new Texas Longhorns coach. Per Brown’s report, Schlossnagle intends to take his coaching staff with him to Austin.

Less than 24 hours ago, the No. 3 Aggies lost the College World Series finals to No. 1 Tennessee. Postgame, Schlossnagle was asked about his future.

“I left my family to be the coach at Texas A&M. I took the job at Texas A&M to never take another job again. That hasn’t changed in my mind,” Schlossnagle proclaimed Monday night. “I have poured every ounce of my soul into this job. I have given this job every single ounce I could possibly give it.”

If the Horns247 report is true, Schlossnagle clearly dissembled through his teeth and pulled on the 12th Man’s heartstrings in the process.

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Hunter Ensley details avoiding Aggies’ catcher to score winning run

Hunter Ensley details scoring the winning run against Texas A&M to win the national championship.

Hunter Ensley scored the decisive run during the seventh inning of Tennessee’s 6-5 victory against Texas A&M to win the national championship on Monday.

Ensley made an acrobatic move to avoid Aggies’ catcher Jackson Appel. He discussed the play after Tennessee won the College World Series Final, 2-1.

“I know KT (Kavares Tears) really hit that ball hard,” Ensley said. “You could probably say I was assuming it a little bit, at the very beginning off the bat, that I thought he got enough of it. Peeked in, saw that it stayed in. It took a really good bounce right to (Jace) LaViolette.

“When I saw that, I knew I had to get on my horse. Dean was pretty much telling me outside, outside, outside. And the throw actually ended up carrying the guy to the outside. Just natural instinct trying to make a play right there and get back on the inside part of the bag, and just was able to avoid the tag right there and ended up being a pretty big run.”