NC State baseball learns schedule for next week's ACC Tournament
NC State baseball will be one of the first teams to complete pool play in the ACC Tournament next week at Truist Field in Charlotte. The Wolfpack learned its schedule Sunday afternoon from the conference.
After being swept at home over the weekend by Wake Forest, NC State baseball fell to a 10 seed in the tourney. Teams are divided into four different pools consisting of three teams. The Pack is in Pool C.
After round-robin play, the team with the best record in the pool advances. If all three teams are 1-1, the highest-rated seed moves on to the semifinals Saturday.
NC State thus will need to win both of its games in pool play to advance to the semis for a third straight ACC Tournament. The Pack’s first opponent will be the team that just completed a sweep of NC State — Wake Forest. That will be game two on Tuesday, the first day of the ACC Tournament. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m., but that will be dependent on the outcome of game one, an 11 a.m. start between Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech from Pool D.
NC State baseball will then turn right around and play the following day in the nightcap against Miami. That is a 7 p.m. scheduled start. NC State and Miami have not played each other this season. The Hurricanes are the top seed in Pool C and the No. 3 overall seed in the tournament. Wake Forest is seeded sixth overall.
Miami and Wake Forest, who have also not played this year, will meet Friday at 3 p.m. in the final day of pool play. The winner of Pool C will face the victor from Pool B in the second game Saturday. Pool B consists of No. 2 overall seed Louisville, seventh-seeded Georgia Tech and No. 11 Pittsburgh.
NC State and Pittsburgh are the two ACC teams that will complete pool play in the first two days.
All pool games will be televised on RSN, while the semifinals will be broadcast on ACC Network. Sunday’s title game, a noon start, will be on ESPN2.
NC State baseball looks to rebound
NC State (33-20 overall and 14-15 in conference) enters the ACC Tournament after seeing their bats go cold against Wake Forest pitching in Raleigh. The Pack scored a combined four runs on 13 hits in three games against the Demon Deacons.
Wake Forest is led by one of the ACC’s best pitchers in sophomore righty Rhett Lowder, who is 10-3 after throwing a complete game Thursday on just 89 pitches against NC State. Lowder allowed two solo homers among five hits, but otherwise surrendered just three singles and no walks while striking out six Wolfpack batters.
The question is will Lowder be available on five-day’s rest? Each of his last two starts have come six days apart, and most weekend starters take seven days between appearances.
NC State faces a similar question. Typical game one weekend starter Logan Whitaker, a redshirt sophomore righty, threw 114 pitches while working into the eighth inning on Thursday.
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