CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — With his 122nd total pitch, at the end of his third shutdown appearance across the long NCAA regional, Dalton Pence pushed North Carolina into the super regional round of the tournament.
The lefty stopper delivered his go-to fastball one more time and LSU's Josh Pearson skied the offering into center field, where it fell into Vance Honeycutt's glove. That final out secured the Tar Heels' dramatic 4-3 defeat of the Tigers in 10 innings on Monday night at Boshamer Stadium.
The final out collected, Pence ripped off his glove and hurled it across the diamond in the direction of UNC's dugout. He soon was met by a mob of teammates near the mound, with veterans Parker Haskin and Johnny Castagnozzi arriving first amid the swarm.
"It's the best feeling I've felt in the world, probably," Pence said after the victory, his smile beaming. "It was. I wasn't feeling anything in that moment, (but) it was great."
During the Tar Heels' handshake line, Pence lingered toward the back. There, he shared a long embrace with UNC coach Scott Forbes. After that extended hug, Pence enjoyed a similar moment with pitching coach Bryant Gaines.
Pence later made his way toward the stands along the third-base side. He exchanged high-fives with fans lined up onthat side, and stopped for a moment with former UNC pitcher Nik Pry, who was standing on the other side of the foul-territory netting. Pence and Pry were teammates during the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
Carolina players could be heard whooping and hollering in excitement throughout the team's clubhouse as they made their way toward the locker room. One pitcher emphatically shouted "and the Tigers are gone!" As for Pence, he had a different subject on his mind.
"I don't even know where my glove is," he exclaimed, before turning the corner into the Tar Heels' celebratory locker room.
Pence later confirmed that he was able to find the glove after going back to the field, once UNC's celebrating concluded in the locker room. His glove, sitting alone on the turf, in some ways became emblematic of Pence's ironman performance over the course of the regional, unflinching stuff during which he emptied the tank on the mound.
He appeared in all three of the Tar Heels' victories in the regional, logging 8⅓ total innings of work. He allowed just two runs across those outings, both in Friday night's wild rally past Long Island. In his two close-the-door efforts against reigning national champion LSU, he held the potent Tigers scoreless while surrendering only one hit. Pence was one of the two pitchers named to the All-Regional team, along with LSU's Griffin Herring.
During his 3⅔ innings in Monday night's winner-take-all game, Pence supplied four strikeouts and earned his fourth pitching win of the season. He threw a season-high 63 pitches on Monday, after already throwing 59 pitches across Friday night (32 pitches against Long Island) and Saturday (27 pitches in the first matchup against LSU).
"He's a horse," Forbes said of Pence's ability to endure the workload. "Dalton is able to do that because he is just a blue-collar, hard-working kid. I mean look at him, he's gotten bigger and he's gotten stronger. You don't recover if you don't get addicted to that weight room. And that kid, we're lucky to have him here, that's for sure."
Added LSU coach Jay Johnson: "He's really good. He's got an elite arm. Has a riding fastball, he can throw it where he wants to. … His secondary stuff was good enough (Monday night) to get us off of that (fastball), and he made it really hard."
In Pence's freshman season at UNC during the fall of 2021, he learned he needed season-ending Tommy John surgery on his elbow. Forbes said he remembers the work Pence put in to get back to full health for his redshirt freshman season in 2023. Through that journey, Pence has grown in the trusted role of Carolina's shutdown closer in this third season with the program.
And in the biggest game of the year, with the season hanging in the balance for the No. 4 national seed Tar Heels, Pence wanted the ball.
"It meant a lot to me," he said. "Sitting out my freshman year with an injury and then coming back last year, and this has just been a special year. I feel like this pitching staff, working with these coaches, this program has a rich history and we want to keep that going. It means the world to me."
