FORT WORTH, T.X. (WNCN) — North Carolina baseball’s all-time home run leader will be taking his speed and clutch hitting to a new organization.
On Sunday, UNC center fielder Vance Honeycutt was taken by the Baltimore Orioles with the 22nd overall pick in the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft. He’s the first Tar Heel to be picked in the first round since 2020 when Aaron Sabato was taken at No. 27 by the Minnesota Twins.
The 2024 Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year hit 28 home runs this past year — a single-season school record — en route to a slugging percentage of .714 with 70 RBI, helping lead Carolina to their first Men’s College World Series appearance since 2018. When he wasn’t hitting them out of the park, he was also a threat on the basepaths, stealing 28 bases.
Coming out of high school in 2021, Honeycutt was drafted then by the San Francisco Giants in the 20th round but chose to play in Chapel Hill instead.
Across three seasons with the Tar Heels, the Salisbury High School product launched 65 home runs to earn the all-time school record. Honeycutt also finished his career at UNC fourth in runs (205), fifth in total bases (442), sixth in slugging percentage (.638) and sixth in stolen bases (76). He also previously won the ACC Defensive Player of the Year award in 2022.
In this past season’s NCAA Tournament, Honeycutt was instrumental in the Tar Heels’ numerous late-inning comebacks and walk-off wins. His late-game heroics included a two-run blast with two outs and in the bottom of the ninth inning of a tied game against West Virginia in the first contest of the super regional round at Boshamer Stadium and a walk-off home run against Virginia in the first game of the CWS in Omaha.