Five ACC Baseball teams heading to the Supers

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It was quite a weekend of tournament baseball at the college ranks. The NCAA tournament was full of surprises as the weekend went along. When the dust settled, five ACC teams made it into the next round, known as the Super Regionals. North Carolina, Duke, Florida State, Louisville, and Miami will play this upcoming weekend for the right to pack their bags and head to “America’s Heartland,” also called Omaha, Neb., to play for a national championship. Let’s take a look at their weekend series.

North Carolina (45-13) was a No. 5 national seed heading into last weekend. They will be making their second straight trip and 12th overall to the Supers. They will be the host team on Friday as they will meet Arizona (42-18), winners of the Big-12 championship in the Eugene Regionals.

Florida State (41-14) will make the cross-country trip to Corvallis, Oregon, to face the Oregon State Beavers (45-13-1). The Beavers played an independent schedule this spring, and it paid off for them. This will be the 19th Super Regional appearance for the Seminoles, and the second straight, after winning their regional at home with wins over Mississippi State and Bethune-Cookman. Oregon State came through the loser’s bracket to defeat USC twice at home.

For the first time in school history, Duke (40-19) will host a regional. It will be the fourth Super Regional appearance for the Blue Devils. The four supers have come in the last seven years. To get to the next step, they would knock off #7 Georgia and Oklahoma State twice. They will face the Murray State Racers (42-14), who are making their very first Super Regional appearance. The Racers, on the road, beat Ole Miss to get here, and they are 26-1 when leading after eight innings.

Louisville (38-21) is no stranger to Super Regional play, having made it 10 times under head coach Dan McDonnell. The Cardinals recorded a victory against each of the other three teams in the regional. Good pitching was a major help, as the Cardinal pitching staff allowed only five runs in 27 innings. They will meet a familiar opponent in Miami at home.

Speaking of those Hurricanes (34-25), they won the Hattiesburg Regional by knocking off #16 Southern Miss Monday night. It is their first regional trip since 2016, and first for head coach J. D. Arteaga. They went 3-1 over the weekend, needing a 5-4 win on Monday night to keep their season alive.

Each series is best two-of-three. The ACC is looking to place a team in the College World Series for the 19th straight season. They will try to place multiple teams in the field of eight for the 13th time in that span. In the previous 18 CWS, 35 ACC teams have made it to Omaha.