Vance Honeycutt starting for North Carolina on Friday night in ACCT matchup vs. Wake Forest

The 2024 ACC Defensive Player of the Year is finally set to be back on Friday night for the North Carolina Tar Heels. The Heels announced a few minutes before Friday night’s ACC Tournament matchup against Wake Forest, that Honeycutt would be back in the lineup.

He’s one of the most talented players in all of college baseball and his return is massive. Not only did he win ACC Defensive Player of the Year this season, but he won the honor in 2023, too. As a freshman, he was named third team All-American by Baseball America. Honeycutt did not play in UNC’s ACCT matchup against Pitt. It didn’t matter, as the ‘Heels coasted to a 12-2 blowout victory over the Panthers.

Regardless of the result of Thursday night’s North Carolina vs. Pitt game, the winner of UNC vs. Wake Forest on Friday night will win Pool A and advance to the semifinals. That was a factor as far as Forbes’ decision to not start his leadoff hitter.

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“There’s no such thing as a meaningless game, but we knew this game wouldn’t advance us to Saturday,” Forbes said. “He warmed up and I think he was like 95 percent. It’s hard for me to play Vance in that game when it’s a back and it’s spasms and I know how back spasms work. I’ve had them before. If you can rest them a little bit and get treatment, chances are pretty good you’re going to be ready to go the next day.”

Vance Honeycutt wanted to play against the Panthers, but Forbes simply felt like a day of rest would be better for him in the long run.

“It was more my call than Vance’s. He wasn’t real happy with it,” Forbes said. “But I wanted to make sure he was ready to go tomorrow night.”

Without Honeycutt, UNC opened the game with three straight home runs against Pitt. In fact, four of the first five North Carolina batters hit solo home runs as the Tar Heels took a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

Anthony Donofrio, Casey Cook, Parks Harber and Alberto Osuna all went deep for the Tar Heels in the first.

On3’s Matt Connolly also contributed to this article.