Lucas: Step One
June 18, 2024
OMAHA— It ends here. Florida State outscored Carolina 9-5 on Tuesday in Omaha, ending the Tar Heels’ stay at the College World Series. The loss ends a remarkable 48-16 season, almost certainly the dazzling Tar Heel career of Vance Honeycutt, and the 2023-24 UNC sports year.
A combination of some offensive struggles and uncharacteristic free passes on the mound were too much to overcome against one of the strongest fields in CWS history. Somehow, they got here even after losing two Friday night starters to injury; pitchers Jake Knapp and Folger Boaz would have been welcome additions in Omaha. Winning the entire event was the 2024 team’s goal, and they’ll go home without accomplishing it.
Establishing Carolina Back in Omaha
Establishing Carolina back in Omaha was the program’s goal—and that one has been achieved. You have to get here to fully understand what you’re missing when the season ends short of the College World Series.
Scott Forbes and Bryant Gaines and Jesse Wierzbicki and Brandon Riley and Jason Howell could tell the players all about it. Collectively, they’ve made well over a dozen trips to Omaha. But it’s those extensive Omaha credentials that taught them it has to be experienced in person. No normal human would believe you when you tell them that Omaha, Nebraska is the greatest place in the world to spend the month of June.
The Omaha Experience
This is not an exaggeration: I went into a store earlier this week to buy postcards. One of them had a giant ear of corn on it, one of them had an enormous tractor, and another featured an empty field. This, folks, is Nebraska. Ain’t it great? It really is.
I don’t know what the people of Omaha are like the other 50 weeks of the year, but for these dozen days every summer, they turn this place into a dream destination. They are welcoming without being pushy. Friendly without being overbearing. Everywhere you went in town this week, someone wanted to talk about the games, and specifically about the Tar Heels, a local favorite.
Preservation of Memories
The people here make the event a big deal but they don’t make themselves a big deal. Carolina has a healthy history here, and that matters in a place like this. The locals appreciate it if you appreciate them, and anyone who has been here from Rosenblatt to Charles Schwab—as the Tar Heels have—appreciates it.
Multiple members of the traveling party paid homage to Rosenblatt this week by making a quick visit. There isn’t much left, but there’s enough to remember what it felt like getting off the highway and seeing the stadium perched on the hill, and the fans lined up for the bleacher seats, and the parking lots full of tailgaters.
Learning from the Experience
Freshmen like Gavin Gallaher and Luke Stevenson and Jason DeCaro have played thousands of baseball games. They’ve played in major league parks. They’ve played with and against some of the very best players in the country throughout high school and travel ball. It’s hard to impress them. So the Tar Heels needed this week, this experience, to help them understand why this event is different.
“It didn’t hit me until I was walking back from the bullpen with Jason before the Virginia game,” Stevenson said. “From the outfield to the dugout, that was a really special moment. It’s something I’ll never forget. It’s awesome here. It’s better than I expected.”
Looking Ahead
So, yes, the 2024 season ends here. But as for the rest of it? It starts here.
