Diamond Heels Begin CWS Title Quest Against Virginia

Friday, June 14

Omaha, Neb.

2 p.m. ET

North Carolina

Virginia

June 13, 2024 | Baseball

Thursday Practice Photos

By: UNC Athletics Communications

OMAHA, Neb. - The No. 4 seed North Carolina baseball team opens play at the 2024 College World Series against 12th-seeded Virginia with a Friday matinee scheduled for 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT on ESPN.

This is Carolina's first meeting against Virginia in the postseason and fourth against a fellow conference member. UNC split a pair of games with NC State in 2013 and defeated Clemson in 2006.

The Tar Heels and Cavaliers have met 321 times previously, with UNC holding a 192-126-3 lead in the series. Virginia took two of three from Carolina earlier this season in Charlottesville. UNC is 5-8 against the Cavaliers under head coach Scott Forbes.

PITCHING MATCHUPS

	Friday \| 2 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Virginia	LHP Evan Blanco (8-3, 3.69 ERA)
Carolina	RHP Jason DeCaro (6-1, 3.89 ERA)
Links	WATCH \| LISTEN \| STATS

OMAHEELS
North Carolina is making its 12th appearance at the College World Series and first since 2018. The Tar Heels are 18-23 all-time at the College World Series since they made their first trip to Omaha in 1960. UNC has made eight trips to the College World Series since 2006 (2006, '07, '08, '09, '11, '13, '18,' 24), second-most behind Florida's nine.

SUPER HEELS
By defeating West Virginia for the program's eighth Super Regional title in 11 attempts, North Carolina recorded its 16th and 17th Super Regional wins in program history, ninth-most in NCAA history. UNC swept through the Super Regional round for the sixth time (2006, '08, '09, '11, '18,' 24).

CLOSE CALLS
This season, the Tar Heels are 9-7 in one-run games, winning their last two. UNC opened the season 7-2 in one-run games before dropping five consecutive one-run games. Four of Carolina's one-run losses were walk-off defeats, losing at East Carolina, at Miami, and twice at NC State.

FINAL COASTAL DIVISION CHAMPION
With the addition of California and Stanford next season, the ACC will go to a single-division format in 2025, thus making North Carolina the final champion of the ACC's Coastal Division. UNC (22-8) finished four games ahead of preseason Coastal Division favorite Virginia (18-12) to win its first title in six years. UNC's eight division titles are twice as many as the second-closet team, Miami (4). Carolina claimed the conference's overall best record by two games in front of Clemson (20-10), capturing the ACC's unofficial regular season championship.

ALL-AMERICA HEELS
A trio of Tar Heels were voted All-America by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, and five Carolina players were selected All-America by Perfect Game. Senior Parks Harber and junior Vance Honeycutt were selected Second Team All-America by the NCBWA, while Matthew Matthijs was voted Third Team All-America. Honeycutt received First Team All-America accolades from Perfect Game and redshirt sophomore Dalton Pence was selected Second Team All-America. Jason DeCaro and Luke Stevenson were named to Perfect Game's All-America Freshman First Team, and Gavin Gallaher was named to its all-freshman second team.

HOME RUN CHAMPION
Honeycutt hit a home run in consecutive at-bats to tie and break his school record of 25 home runs during the Super Regional. His record-breaking 26th home run was a lead-off home against West Virginia in game two after tying the mark with a walk-off home run in game one. Honeycutt has hit 63 home runs as a Tar Heel, the most in program history and fourth-most in ACC history. He has hit eight home runs in the NCAA Tournament, a UNC record.

NO PLACE LIKE THE BOSH
The Tar Heels boasted a 37-3 record at Boshamer Stadium this season, winning a program-record 92.5 percent of their games at home. The previous highest complete-season winning percentage at Boshamer Stadium was 92.3 in 2011 (36-3) and 1985 (24-2). Only Tennessee (40) had more home wins than the Tar Heels in 2024, and only UC Santa Barbara and Oregon State had fewer losses (2).

THE FIREMEN
Dalton Pence and Matt Poston have come on to lock down the Tar Heels' opponents the last three games, combining for 12 shutout innings with 16 strikeouts and three hits allowed. Pence struck out 12 in nine innings in two appearances against LSU and another versus West Virginia. Poston threw 3.0 shutout innings against West Virginia a week, fanning four without yielding a hit. The duo has combined for three wins and two saves in the NCAA Tournament.

THE BOSH BROTHERS
After being held without a home run by LSU in consecutive games for the first time since mid-March, the Bosh Bombers returned in game one of the Super Regional, going deep three times, including twice in the ninth inning. The Tar Heels have hit a school record 113 home runs this season, five more than the previous record of 108 set in 2002. Carolina has hit three or more home runs in a game 17 times this season, including seven twice (3/17 at Miami, 5/10 vs. Louisville). Seven players have combined for 14 multi-home run games this season. Honeycutt and Casey Cook each have four two-homer games this season, while Parks Harber has the team's lone three-homer game (3/30 at Wake Forest).