The University of North Carolina baseball program made its sixth-consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament during the 2023 season, marking its longest streak since a string of 13 straight between the 2002-2014 campaigns.
Making matters more impressive, the Diamond Heels continued this streak without 2023 ACC Defensive Player of the Year, leadoff hitter, starting center fielder and career 100-RBI producer Vance Honeycutt, who missed the season’s final 10 games due to a lower-back injury.
The Tar Heels faced elimination after losing their Terre Haute (Ind.) Regional opener, a 5-4 heartbreaker against the University of Iowa on Friday, June 2. UNC punched back the next day to eliminate Wright State with a 5-0 win, then got another crack at the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Carolina took an early, 2-0 lead on a Casey Cook home run, then saw it disappear. Carolina later sent the game to extras on third baseman Mac Horvath’s bomb, but Iowa scored in the top of the 13th and ended the Heels’ season by holding them scoreless in the home half.
Though the Diamond Heels received plenty of offensive contributions from their starters in this game and continued their postseason streak, one has to wonder: how far would they have made it with Honeycutt?
Before head coach Scott Forbes announced he would miss the regional, Honeycutt had 49 hits in 50 games started. That’s almost a hit per game. He added 12 home runs, 43 RBIs and showcased his speed with 19 stoles bases. Honeycutt also continued thriving in the field, recording a .986 fielding percentage and continuing to make SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays with his highlight-reel catches.
Patrick Alvarez recorded two hits in the opener against Iowa, then went 0-8 the rest of the regional. Power bat Alberto Osuna notched a team-high three RBIs in the opener, but didn’t drive in another run (or get a hit) in the remainder of the regional. Horvath went 4-for-9 with four RBIs in the final two games of the regional, but started 0-for-4. Tomas Frick and Hunter Stokely were the only two Tar Heels to record hits in each game.
UNC had the offensive talent to advance to win a Regional for the second straight year, but came up just a couple games short.
It’s hard not to wonder if Honeycutt’s bat would’ve aided the Diamond Heels in reaching the next round.
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