Seven ACC baseball teams made the 64-team NCAA tournament field announced Monday, with North Carolina one of four regional hosts from the league and N.C. State the No. 2 seed at the Austin, Texas, regional.
Special thanks to News & Observer for sharing with the world that both Carolina and State made the NCAA Baseball Tournament in this piece.
The Pack will face perennial Pacific-10 power Stanford (30-25) in its first game at noon Friday. The Cardinal won nine of its final 13 in the regular season. There is no Pac-10 tourney.
The fourth-ranked Longhorns (40-19) are the No. 3 national seed and enter the NCAA field as an at-large team after losing in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament.
Texas will face fourth-seeded Texas-Arlington (29-34), the Southland Conference champ.
“It’s a tough field,” Avent said. “Going to a regional with Texas and Stanford. That’s like going to a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers and the [Dallas] Cowboys being there.”
Conversely, had you opened the Charlotte Observer today you would have barely known that NC State even made the field. The inside of the Chlt Obs this morning has a big feature on how the Tar Heels are glad to be playing at home after going 0-2 and being the first team to be eliminated from last week’s ACC Tournament. So, can’t you understand the urgency to highlight a team that hasn’t played in the last few days after their poor recent performance?
The Charlotte Observer does devote 13 words to NC State’s appearance, despite the Pack’s recent appearance in the ACC Championship game on Sunday.
Click here for some related critiques of the Chlt Obs
