Duke slugger MJ Metz gets hats stacked on head following big game vs. UNC Wilmington

Duke’s MJ Metz had an unbelievable afternoon on Friday in the Blue Devils’ Regional matchup vs. UNC Wilmington in the 2023 NCAA Baseball Tournament. Despite playing with a torn ACL, Metz blasted three home runs against the Seahawks.

During his postgame interview, Metz’s teammates decided to mess around with him and stack several hats on top of his head.

Check it out as he did the interview following his hat trick of home runs.

After hitting 3 home runs while playing with a torn ACL, Duke's MJ Metz does a postgame interview while getting many hats stacked on his head. ⚾️🧢pic.twitter.com/VqrOLNkKp5

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 2, 2023

Every player wants to bring their best to the table once the postseason arrives. However, it’s hard to imagine that anyone is going to play much better than Duke’s MJ Metz on the opening day of the NCAA Tournament.

Metz went the distance three times for the Blue Devils in the first seven innings of their matchup against UNC Wilmington. It’s even more impressive considering that he did it in three straight at-bats against the Seahawks.

Metz has now gone from 13 home runs on his season to 16 over the span of a single game. That’s nearly a quarter of his home runs from his 51 appearances this year in less than one in the opening round of the Conway Regional.

The Duke graduate student poured it on to UNCW and the Blue Devils cruised to a 12-3 win. While that’ll be a very, very hard pace to keep, though, the Blue Devils will have their fingers crossed for more of the same from Metz for the remainder of their run in the postseason.

Metz has a hat trick of home runs, Conway Regional ranked as one of three easiest regionals in the 2023 NCAA Tournament

Coastal Carolina is hosting as the No. 10 overall seed, and the Chanticleers find themselves in one of the lightest regionals in this year’s tournament. Coastal won 39 games this season, including a 23-7 record in the Sun Belt. They also played the toughest non-conference schedule. But their numbers won’t blow anyone away.

Pitching wise, Coastal has just one player with at least two appearances on the season with a sub-3.00 ERA. The staff ERA is 6.17 with a 1.63 WHIP. They can hit, though, with a team .310 average and 100 home runs.

Coastal Carolina’s No. 2 seed is Duke, a team that was in the mix to host until the final week or two of the regular season. The Blue Devils are a scrappy team offensively, with a nice mix of power, contact and speed. They also have a few great arms on the pitching staff, notably Fran Oschell III and James Tallon out of the bullpen. Both have sub-2.00 ERAs with a sub 1.00 WHIP.

UNC Wilmington is a sneaky No. 3 seed. The Seahawks only have 70 home runs as a team, but a strong lineup that’s led by Jac Croom, Trevor Marsh, and Tanner Thach could be scary for opposing pitchers. UNCW is also red hot, having won six games in a row that led them to a CAA Tournament title.

Rider, who went 35-19 overall and 14-7 in the MAAC, is the No. 4 seed in the Conway Regional.

On3’s Sam Gillenwater also contributed to this article.