UNC Baseball's Vance Honeycutt named ACC Player of the Week

The UNC baseball program started the 2024 season with a sweep of Wagner and a barnburner win over Elon before taking only one out of three against No. 11-ranked East Carolina. However, center fielder Vance Honeycutt came on strong to start his junior year and was named the ACC Player of the Week for the second time in his career.

The Diamond Heels' season opener against Wagner set the tone for Honeycutt's week. He belted a home run to right center as part of a six-run sixth inning to give the Tar Heels a 10-3 win over the Seahawks.

The following day, he homered to left in the sixth and scored an unearned run in the eighth after reaching on an error to spark the Tar Heels to a 16-5 win. Watch highlights of that game here.

Honeycutt then closed the series by scoring the fourth run in a ten-run second inning that gave the Tar Heels all the runs they needed in a 20-6 rout of Wagner.

On Tuesday, Honeycutt turned on a 3-2 pitch in the fifth inning and belted it to right field for a grand slam. That proved to be the difference for UNC baseball in the 8-7 win over the Phoenix.

Although the Tar Heels only took one out of three against East Carolina, Honeycutt collected four hits. The biggest one came in the eighth inning of the first game of the series. He sent the first pitch he saw deep to left for what proved to be the game-winning run in a 2-1 win.

Honeycutt came into 2024 with something to prove. He missed the 2023 ACC tournament and NCAA regionals with a lower back injury. Before the season, he told Triangle CBS affiliate WNCN that he hoped to make the most of his junior year.

There's talk that Honeycutt will leave Chapel Hill after this season; according to WNCN, he was projected as a first-round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft if he does decide to head to the pros.