Diamond Heels bats fall silent in loss to No. 1 seed Tennessee during CWS

OMAHA, Neb. — When Vance Honeycutt cranked a solo shot to left center field, another Diamond Heels’ resurgence seemed inevitable. 

Down 4-0 against No. 1-seeded Tennessee in the top of the sixth, the junior center fielder’s home run appeared to be the moment that would ignite the silent Tar Heel lineup. After Honeycutt rounded the bases, redshirt sophomore left fielder Casey Cook and senior first baseman Parks Harber followed with singles of their own. 

But unlike the rest of UNC’s postseason, which has been dominated by late-game heroics, the Tar Heels fell flat. 

A potential rally turned into a quick exit as graduate right fielder Anthony Donofrio was picked off at second base and first-year third baseman Gavin Gallaher struck out a few pitches later. 

“I think that was a big spot for us in the game,” Harber said. “But sometimes in baseball, you don’t come through.” 

And during their last few appearances, North Carolina has struggled to come through offensively. The Tar Heels have only scored six runs across their last three games — the lowest in any three-game stretch this season — and Honeycutt has been the sole driving force of four of those runs. Against the most powerful lineup in the country in Tennessee, UNC failed to produce, leading to a 6-1 loss and a spot in the elimination bracket. 

According to head coach Scott Forbes, batting is contagious. To power those big innings, players need to have those big-time at-bats.

“I feel like the one thing that kind of lets the air out is when you get those guys on [and] somebody hits the ball in the gap,” Forbes said. “Somebody hits the ball over the wall. Somebody gets hit by a pitch.”

And that’s been UNC’s calling card. 

Against LIU in the Chapel Hill Regional, Gallaher hit a walk-off grand slam. Four days later, The Tar Heels forced LSU into extra innings and secured a victory after coming back from a 3-2 deficit in the bottom of the ninth. 

But against Tennessee’s junior right-handed pitcher Drew Beam — who threw for five innings and handed out seven strikeouts — that game-changing inning never came like it has so many times before. 

“I thought [Beam] did a good job the first time through the order, attacked us with fastballs,” Harber said. “The second time around he did a good job landing the off-speed pitches to get ahead in the count and keep you off balance.”

North Carolina went just 1-9 with runners on base and 0-4 with runners in scoring position. The offense couldn’t make the game close or capitalize on those moments to put themselves back in it. 

And with a rough schedule ahead, the magic the Tar Heels have relied on during their postseason run might have left at the most inopportune moment. 

“We just haven’t been able to have a big, big inning but we’re capable of doing that,” Forbes said. “It can flip just like that.”

With a similar high-powered offense waiting on Tuesday afternoon in No. 8 Florida State, the script needs to flip immediately. 

Not only will UNC have to push past the Seminoles, but they will also have to hand the Vols back-to-back losses to make it to the championship. 

To have any shot at winning their bracket, the Tar Heels will have to find the same offensive rhythm that led them in the regular season and made those late-game scenarios possible. 

But if the offense remains silent, the Tar Heels face the possibility of returning home empty-handed once again with the dreams of winning the program’s first-ever national championship dashed. 

@_emmahmoon

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