Friday’s Game 1 matchup of the Chapel Hill Super Regional between the North Carolina Tar Heels and the West Virginia Mountaineers featured a dramatic ending, with a top prospect in the upcoming 2024 MLB Draft playing the role of the hero.
North Carolina went into the bottom of the ninth inning facing a 6-5 deficit. West Virginia starter Derek Clark came out to attempt to close out what he started but faced some adversity immediately.
Tar Heels’ leadoff batter in the inning, catcher Luke Stevenson, started the ninth-inning rally by taking Clark deep to tie the game.
After letting up another hit in the inning, Clark was taken out of the game in favor of relief pitcher Aidan Major. And pun intended, Major ran into some major problems.
After striking out his first batter of the inning, he came up against star outfielder Vance Honeycutt, who is currently ranked the No. 20 prospect in the upcoming draft class.
That ranking may go up after this game. Honeycutt came up huge with the biggest hit of the season thus far for the Tar Heels, hitting a massive bomb of a home run out to left field to give the Tar Heels an 8-6 victory, along with a pretty sweet bat flip to boot.
Naturally, fans had plenty to say about Honeycutt’s big moment, taking to social media to offer their reactions to his heroics.
West Virginia will now have its back up against the wall in the best-of-three series. Game 2 of the series will take place on Saturday night at 8 EST.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.