NC State baseball and updated ACC Tournament field
For NC State baseball, it is no longer a question of if but who. The Pack entered the weekend with work to do to ensure a spot in the ACC Tournament next week in Durham, N.C. That task has been completed. Now NC State has to find out where it will be seeded and who will grouped in its pool.
NC State’s simplest path to securing a spot into the tourney was winning a series against Pittsburgh at Doak Field in Raleigh. After taking game one, 7-2 on Thursday, the Pack just needed one more win to accomplish that. To that end, the Pack won a 17-8 slugfest Friday night to improve to 33-18 overall and 12-16 in the ACC.
Even before that game went final however, NC State had clinched a spot into the conference field. That’s because after winning game one against Pitt, another path to officially get into the field was a Louisville home loss to Florida State, which came Friday night while the Pack was slugging it out with the Panthers.
NC State entered the weekend the No. 12 seed and the last team in the ACC Tournament field. After taking two games against Pitt coupled with Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech each losing the first two games of series against Virginia and Wake Forest, respectively, the Pack has climbed up to the No. 9 seed.
The Wolfpack concludes its three-game set with Pitt at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Pitt needs a win or a Louisville loss to clinch the last spot in the field. NC State can do no worse than an 11 seed, which means the Pack will avoid having to play the nation’s top-ranked team Wake Forest in pool play.
Top 10
- 1Hot
Updated SEC title game scenarios
The path to the championship game is clear
- 2Breaking
Kevin Wilson
Tulsa expected to fire head coach
- 3
SEC refs under fire
'Incorrect call' wipes Bama TD away
- 4
'Fire Kelly' chants at LSU
Death Valley disapproval of Brian Kelly
- 5
Chipper Jones
Braves legend fiercely defends SEC
Here is the current seeding order with their respective ACC record. (Seeds clinched designated with *.)
1. Wake Forest – 22-6 (Atlantic Division champ)*
2. Virginia – 18-11 (Coastal Division champ)*
3. Clemson – 19-10*
4. Miami – 17-12
5. Duke – 16-12
6. Boston College – 16-14
7. North Carolina – 14-13
8. Notre Dame – 15-15
9. NC State – 12-16
10. Georgia Tech – 12-17
11. Virginia Tech – 11-17
12. Pittsburgh – 10-17
Not in the field:
13. Louisville – 10-19
14. Florida State – 8-21
NC State baseball and ACC Tournament pools
Here is how the pools would currently shape up. Each teams play each other, and if there is a tie then the higher seed advances. Since NC State will be one of the bottom four seeds, it will need to win both games in pool play to potentially advance to a third consecutive ACC Tournament finals.
Pool A:
1. Wake Forest
8. Notre Dame
12. Pittsburgh
Pool B:
2. Virginia
7. North Carolina
11. Virginia Tech
Pool C:
3. Clemson
6. Boston College
10. Georgia Tech
Pool D:
4. Miami
5. Duke
9. NC State
The Pack opened ACC season with a series at Miami, falling in 2 of 3 contests. The series was ultimately decided in the opener, when the Pack gave up 8 runs in the second inning only to battle back and gradually tie the score at 8-8 in the top of the seventh. Miami got what proved to be the last run on a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh to prevail, 9-8.
NC State baseball did not play Duke during the regular season. The Blue Devils was one of the hottest teams in the league in April, winning all four 3-game conference series played. Thus far, Duke is 4-5 in the month of May.
