NC State baseball learns ACC Tournament draw
The draw with dates and times has been set for NC State baseball in the ACC Tournament next week in Durham, N.C. The Pack will waste little time getting started, and will face an old rival in a primetime game that is sure to be a popular draw.
NC State is in pool D as the No. 9 seed after finishing the regular season with a 34-18 overall record and 13-16 mark in the ACC. The Pack entered the weekend fighting to avoid being left home from the tournament. The bottom two teams in the league standings do not participate.
Going into the weekend, NC State was in the 12th and final spot for the tourney. However, a sweep of Pittsburgh by the Pack combined with results of the Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech series (each lost 2 of 3) saw NC State leap past all three of those teams in the standings into the ninth spot.
That meant that the Pack went into Pool D with the four and five seeds. Miami and Duke battled for positioning last weekend for those spots, with the Hurricanes taking 2 of 3 from the Blue Devils to be the fourth seed.
Duke will be the five seed.
NC State will play Duke on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The two Tobacco Road rivals did not meet in the regular season. The last time they faced in the ACC Tournament, the Blue Devils topped the Wolfpack 1-0 in 2021. That NC State team would advance to the College World Series.
Duke finished the regular season 35-19 overall and 16-13 in the ACC. However, after a red hot April that saw the Blue Devils win all four of its three-game conference series in the month (they split with Virginia Tech in a shortened two-game set), Duke has gone 4-6 in 10 games in May, including losing 4 of 5 to end the regular season.
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NC State baseball must win both games in pool play to have a chance to advance to Saturday’s semifinals. That’s because any tiebreakers are decided by the higher seed. If the Pack were to defeat Duke, Thursday night would be a winner-advances scenario against Miami. That contest will also be a 7 p.m. start.
Both games will be televised on ACC Network.
Miami (37-18 overall, 18-12 ACC) took 2 of 3 from NC State in a series in Miami, the conference openers for both squads. A one-run, 9-8 win for the Canes in game one proved to be the difference. Miami put up eight runs in the second inning only to watch NC State chip away and tie the score in the seventh. However, a solo shot for the Canes in the bottom half of the frame ultimately was a game winner.
If Duke beats NC State on Tuesday, the Blue Devils and Canes will play for a spot in the semifinals on Friday afternoon.
The winner of Pool D faces the triumphant team from Pool A, which is headlined by the nation’s top-ranked team in Wake Forest, at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The semifinals are on ACC Network, while Sunday’s noon title game is on ESPN2.
