May 30, 2024 - News

North Carolina sends seven teams to NCAA baseball tournament

Duke baseball players celebrate a home run in last year's ACC Baseball Championship. — Duke baseball players celebrate a homerun in last year's ACC Baseball Championship. Photo: Eakin Howard/Getty Images

Triangle schools are well-represented in another collegiate NCAA tournament.

State of play: UNC and N.C. State's baseball teams each earned No. 1 seeds and host nods in the regional round this weekend. Duke, which won the ACC tournament in Charlotte this past weekend, will be the No. 2 seed in the Norman, Oklahoma regional.

UNC is seeded fourth overall in the 64-team field, while State is 10th.

Meanwhile, over in Greenville, ECU's squad secured the last regional hosting position as the 16th overall seed.

Three other North Carolina teams qualified: Wake Forest, UNC-Wilmington and High Point, which is playing in its first NCAA baseball tournament.

How it works: The regionals are a four-team, double-elimination, mini-tournament within the larger tournament. The winner advances to the Super Regionals, and the Super Regionals winners earn a spot in the coveted College World Series.

Wake Forest, back in 1955, is the only North Carolina school to have won an NCAA Baseball Championship.
UNC advanced to the title round in 2006 and 2007 but fell short.

And N.C. State — ohh, N.C. State — was one step short of the championship round in 2021 when the NCAA suddenly declared their game against Vanderbilt a no-contest due to COVID-19 protocols, sending the Commodores to the final round and the Wolfpack home reeling and angry.

Watch: Duke will play Connecticut at 1pm Friday, N.C. State faces Bryant at 7 and the Tar Heels face Long Island at 6.

Tickets in Chapel Hill are sold out, but some are available for the Raleigh regional.

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North Carolina sends seven teams to NCAA baseball tournament

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