How UNC Went From 'Down in the Dumps' to ACC Tournament Champ, NCAA Regional Host
Tar Heels head into NCAA Tournament with momentum
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Around this time five weeks ago, few could picture this.
On the heels of four straight series losses, North Carolina entered the bottom of the 10th inning on April 23 with a 7-4 lead and hopes of gaining some momentum with a come-from-behind win against Virginia. Just as quickly as that started seeming like a reality, though, Devin Ortiz crushed a two-out, walk-off grand slam. And, in doing so, this UNC squad became the first in school history to drop five consecutive series.
Such a loss would’ve left a sour taste in the mouth of any team. But for a group that had already suffered three other walk-off defeats, the Tar Heels left Charlottesville, Virginia, a day later feeling “down in the dumps.” So, too, did their head coach, the ever-optimistic Scott Forbes.
If things were going to change, though, he knew he couldn’t stay that way for long.
“When you go through something like that, all the eyes are going to one person and that’s you — the head coach,” Forbes said. “You have to control your emotions. You have to stay positive with these kids and continue to work really, really hard.”
“What kept me going for this team was our team, our players,” he added, “because they’ve done everything right from the start of the fall, summer school, all the way back then — in the classroom, off the field, work ethic. I just felt like, ‘OK, we just have to stay positive and something good is going to happen.’”
What’s followed: perhaps the most remarkable turnaround in UNC history.
Embracing Forbes’ mindset, the Tar Heels bounced back a few days later to beat a good Liberty team, 8-1, and entered the exam break on a high note. Coming out of it, they outlasted Charlotte in 10 innings before going into Raleigh and taking a pair of games from N.C. State. The confidence that they gained from those wins was more than enough to power them through the rest of the regular season, which they completed with a series victory over Wake Forest and a sweep of Florida State.
As impressive a stretch as that was, they arrived at the ACC Tournament feeling as if they hadn’t played their best ball. But in four games at Truist Field, they did just that.
UNC dominated Clemson and top-seeded Virginia Tech in pool play. It then grinded out a 7-2 victory over Notre Dame in the semifinals. Sunday, in the title game, the Tar Heels fell behind the rival Wolfpack 1-0 in the first. But not even that could slow them down, as they tallied eight runs over the first two innings en route to a 9-5 win and the eighth ACC Tournament title in program history.
Roughly 40 minutes after that victory — and a raucous celebration that has to be among the sweetest of his 25-year coaching career — Forbes sat at a dais for his postgame press conference, trying to make sense of how far his team has come.
“One thing that I felt like that our players never did, even when we were going through that tough stretch, is I felt like they still played hard and they didn’t quit,” Forbes said. “Never quit a game, even though it was tough and I thought that would serve them well. We just needed to find a way to win a couple close games.”
And, like with most Tar Heel teams, that started on the mound.
Coming off a 2021 campaign in which it boasted little pitching depth behind Austin Love, UNC entered this spring with several questions surrounding its pitching staff. Those dissipated amid an 18-3 start in which the Tar Heels posted the nation’s third-best ERA (2.07). But in the 5-14 stretch that followed, starting with the series opener against Miami on March 25, UNC recorded a 7.06 ERA while averaging about three more walks per nine innings (5.8).
Several factors contributed to that. The biggest, though, was the Tar Heels getting little length from their starters and how that, in turn, strained the bullpen. For that reason, the exam break couldn’t have come at a better time, as it gave the relievers a much-needed chance to rest. It also allowed the starters — namely Max Carlson and Brandon Schaeffer — to hit the reset button, which they’ve clearly done.
That was evident throughout the ACC Tournament, as Carlson and Schaeffer led a staff that notched a 1.75 ERA while striking out 31 and walking 10 over 36 innings.
Carlson set the tone against Clemson, tossing six innings of one-run ball on four days’ rest. Schaeffer followed three days later with one of the best postseason performances by a Tar Heel pitcher in recent memory — a complete-game shutout of Virginia Tech — and the crew of Will Sandy, Gage Gillian, Nik Pry, Shawn Rapp and Davis Palermo built on that, holding Notre Dame to two runs on seven hits.
All that set the stage for Carlson to take the hill Sunday, again on four days’ rest. And the righty more than delivered, giving up three runs on six hits while striking out six and walking one over five innings. The outing — combined with four innings of two-run ball by the bullpen — brought UNC’s ERA to 3.35 since the Liberty game.
“The story of the game was Carlson,” said Forbes, glancing at the sophomore sitting beside him. “He's a guy up here who had that season-ending (elbow) surgery (last year) and we weren't sure if he was even going to be available this year. I've always believed in all these years of being a pitching coach that there's too much rest and four days is about perfect, and I'm proud of him.”
Even as Forbes heaped praise on his starter, he couldn’t deny the impact of the other star sharing the dais with them.
From the moment he arrived on campus, Vance Honeycutt showed why the San Francisco Giants selected him in the 20th round of last year’s MLB Draft, wowing everyone with his power and speed. That continued into the spring, as he batted .308 with eight homers and 15 stolen bases in his first 21 games. Just as quickly as he took Chapel Hill by storm, though, the freshman hit a lull.
In the Tar Heels’ 5-14 stretch, Honeycutt hit .200 with two homers and just nine walks compared to 35 strikeouts. His struggles prompted a move from the leadoff spot to the nine-hole, as well as some self-reflection. But they also brought the best out of him.
With the help of assistant coach Jesse Wierzbicki, Honeycutt worked to improve his bat path so that he could catch up to higher velocity. Slowly but surely, Forbes started seeing improvements. And in the N.C. State series, they finally came to fruition, as the center fielder hit two homers and a double and slid into the cleanup spot.
Since then, there’s been no looking back.
Honeycutt finished the regular season on a tear, totaling seven homers and six multi-RBI efforts over the last 11 games. He then somehow took his game up another level in the ACC Tournament, hitting .400 with four homers — two each against Virginia Tech and N.C. State — and 10 RBIs on his way to becoming the first freshman MVP since Florida State’s Shane Robinson in 2004.
Behind his sensational week, Honeycutt is slashing .377/.492/1.075 with 11 homers and 25 RBIs in 15 games since the N.C. State opener. UNC is averaging 8.06 runs in that span, almost 1.9 more than it has averaged all season. Honeycutt hasn’t been solely responsible for that, as the Tar Heels’ lineup started rounding into form amid his slump. But he’s the primary reason why it’s taken off.
“I feel like if you're seeing it well, you're able to spit on pretty good pitcher's pitches, that off-speed in the dirt or changeup low, stuff like that,” said Honeycutt, the first Division I freshman in the BBCOR era (since 2011) to record 20 homers and 20 stolen bases in a single season. “You're able to get your pitch and not kind of chase and if you're able to do that then, you can find a barrel and good things happen.”
As Honeycutt and his teammates celebrated after Sunday’s game, their April struggles were a distant memory. Championship shirts and hats were passed out. Awards were given. And every sort of photo imaginable was captured to document this moment in time, one that seemed unfathomable not too long ago.
Despite all that, UNC knows it’s not finished.
Before they took the field for Sunday’s championship game, Forbes said he overheard his players talking about it as “just one step” toward their larger goal. Friday’s NCAA Tournament opener against Hofstra represents another for the Tar Heels, the No. 10 national seed and host of the Chapel Hill Regional.
“Obviously, we are feeling pretty good,” Carlson said. “But we don’t want to ride the highs too high and the lows too low. We’re just going to keep our heads forward, keep working hard and see what happens.”
But now — perhaps more than ever — they can picture it.