ACC Baseball: Four Teams heading to Omaha

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We have reached that time of year. The final stage of the college baseball season. The road that started back in mid-February has brought eight teams to Omaha, Nebraska for the chance to claim the sport’s biggest prize. A national championship. The ACC has four teams heading to TD Ameritrade to begin chasing that dream starting on Friday afternoon.

Florida State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Virginia will be among the eight left standing for a shot at hoisting that trophy. The other four are from the Southeastern Conference. Florida, Kentucky, Texas A&M, and Tennessee. While a lot will be made of two conferences facing each other for a national championship, the bottom line is that the best two leagues in college baseball went through their seasons and the NCAA Tournament and arrived in Omaha. Let’s take a look at how the ACC put four in the final field.

The Florida State Seminoles will be making their 24th trip to the College World Series. The first under coach Link Jarrett. Last weekend, it was their offense that carried them to a series sweep of the UConn Huskies. In the 24-4 win on Friday, the Seminoles set a record for runs scored and margin of victory. They hit five home runs, two from OF Jaime Ferrer While getting big offensive days from James Tibbs the just-named ACC Player of the Year, and Marco Dinges who combined for four hits and eight runs driving in.

On Saturday afternoon, Tibbs had another monster day with three more bombs, including the go-ahead two-run shot in the 12th inning. That would be the margin of victory. He became the first player since 2010 to hit three HRs in a game. Out of the Seminoles bullpen, Connor Whitaker went 3.2 innings of scoreless baseball to help send FSU back to Omaha. The Seminoles will face Tennessee in their first game.

Virginia took care of K-State last weekend to make their seventh trip in the past 15 years to the CWS. With the game tied in the bottom of the seventh, Virginia took the lead on a three-run HR by Henry Goodbut. That home run would make a winner of Evan Blanco who went seven innings and striking out nine in a 7-4 Cavaliers win. On Saturday, Henry Ford broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the fifth with a 2-run single to left field. That would turn out to be the game-winning hit as the Cavaliers would tack on five runs in the ninth to get a 10-4 win. Virginia will meet the North Carolina Tar Heels in their opening game.

That’s because the Tar Heels were taking care of business at home vs West Virginia. In game one on Friday night, with the Tar Heels down 6-5 in the ninth, Vance Honeycutt walked the game off with a three-run home run to give UNC an 8-6 victory. Honeycutt would get things started on Saturday with another home run. He would get help from Parks Harber singling in a run in the third. The Tar Heels pitching would do the rest and send UNC to Omaha. It will be the 12th appearance for UNC and the first since 2013. This will be the sixth time that two teams from the ACC will meet in the opening round of the CWS. It’s the first time since 2013.

North Carolina State was on the road last weekend in Athens Georgia to face the Georgia Bulldogs. The first two games of this regional were one-sided. The Wolfpack took game one by an 18-1 score, their largest margin of victory in an NCAA tournament game. Georgia came back on Saturday to win 11-2 to set up a win or go home game three on Monday night. Backed by three home runs and solid pitching from Jacob Dudan, the Wolfpack will be making their fourth trip to the CWS. On Saturday they will face the Kentucky Wildcats in the first round.

The four teams in this year’s field tie the league and NCAA record for most teams in a single College World Series. It is also the second time the conference has sent four teams to the CWS. The last time was in 2006. Florida State, North Carolina, and Virginia will compete in Bracket One. North Carolina State will be in Bracket Two.