Honeycutt and North Carolina Eliminate West Virginia

The Mountaineers fall short in a super regionals elimination game

WVU Baseball / Christopher Hall

Chapel Hill, NC – North Carolina junior Vance Honeycutt led the Tarheels (47-14) to a 2-1 decision over the West Virginia Mountaineers (36-24) Saturday night in an elimination game of the NCAA tournament super regionals.

On the first pitch of the game, All-ACC first team selection Vance Honeycutt drove a home run over left field to give the Tar Heels a 1-0 lead.

Honeycutt bunted down the right side for a single to keep North Carolina alive in the third before redshirt sophomore Casey Cook followed with a base hit back up the middle to place runners at the corners and senior Parks Harber slapped a single through the left side to score Honeycutt for a 2-0 advantage in the third.

West Virgina lefty Tyler Switalski threw six and a third, allowed just two runs on five hits on the afternoon. The junior exited the game in the seventh with two on and one out as head coach Randy Mazey called in Carson Estridge. The righty struck out one before hitting Wilkerson, loading the bases for North Carolina’s all-time home run leader Vance Honey cut, but the sophomore delivered the crucial strikeout to keep the Mountaineers within two.

North Carolina freshman Jason DeCaro gave up his second hit with one out in the seventh before head coach Scott Forbes opted to called out to the bullpen for the left-hander Dalton Pence. The redshirt sophomore struck out one before putting the potential tying on run base with a walk. Then, on the 1-1 pitch, junior Kyle West delivered the RBI single through the left side for an RBI single to cut the deficit to one, 2-1.

In the bottom of the ninth, sophomore Sam White hit a leadoff single through the hole on the right side. Freshman Armani Guzman came into the game as a pinch runner, and with one out, was able to take second on a wild pitch. Junior Grant Hussey worked a walk to put the winning run first. Then with two outs, West fought back from a 1-2 count and received a walk to load the bases. However a soft line drive that one hopped to the first baseman ended the game as the Tarheels held on for the 2-1 win.