Two innings. Two different pitchers. Two home runs. One first-year and one new swing.
UNC baseball center fielder Vance Honeycutt launched two pitches over the Truist Field fence in back-to-back at-bats to begin UNC’s ACC Championship Game against N.C. State. The Salisbury native’s early offensive success, driving in five batters in the first two innings, allowed UNC to jump out to an early lead in its eventual 9-5 win over the Wolfpack on Sunday.
“Every time he goes up, he sees the ball as big as a beach ball,” N.C. State head coach Elliott Avent said of Honeycutt's performance. “That’s a great feeling for a hitter.”
Sunday marked Honeycutt’s second game with two home runs in the conference tournament, and delivered the center fielder his 20th and 21st bombs of the season. The ACC Tournament MVP became the first Tar Heel, and Division I first-year since 2011, to record 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in a single season.
But, much like the prospects of UNC reaching an ACC Championship, these feats seemed improbable just a month ago.
After making an early impression as a consistent leadoff batter for the Diamond Heels, Honeycutt had a rough stretch at the plate in late April. In a seven-game span, the first-year was batting at a roughly .230 average and was sequestered to the bottom of the lineup in series losses against Georgia Tech and UVA.
“The game kind of sped up a little bit when I went through that stretch,” Honeycutt said in an interview this past Tuesday. “Just swinging at balls, not really in the strike zone. It’s tough. I think everyone goes through times like that. You just got to trust your hard work, and just keep working to make it out the other side.”
Around this time, the UNC coaching staff identified a tilt in Honeycutt’s load that was causing him to get underneath the ball, resulting in a slump of swinging strikeouts. Working with assistant coach Jesse Wierzbicki, the first-year worked relentlessly to flatten out his swing and improve his barrel speed.
“We worked a lot on bat path,” Honeycutt said on Tuesday. “I think I was in the zone and out of the zone for a very short amount of time, and I didn’t have much room for error. So I think working on that and being able to get my bat in the zone earlier just gives me more room for error."
