During a strong showing in Durham this past week, which saw Wolfpack Baseball (34-21, 18-15 ACC) sweep thru their Pool B brethren at the 2015 ACC Baseball Championship but fall one game short of bringing home the hardware on Sunday, the Pack9 continued to improve its NCAA Tournament resume considerably, and as a result has earned itself a #2 seed for the upcoming NCAA Baseball Tournament.
Winners of 13 of its past 16 games, the Pack enters the tournament playing its best ball of the year and will begin its quest to return to Omaha by heading to the Fort Worth Regional, where they will open up play by facing the #3 seeded Stony Brook Seawolves on Friday at 2:30pm. Regional host and #1 seeded TCU (#7 overall national seed) will face #4 seed Sacred Heart in the other opening game of the four team double elimination bracket.
Aye! Congrats @NCStateBaseball!! pic.twitter.com/nTYkvqPvJB
— Lee Phillips (@LeePhillips89) May 25, 2015
#STATEMENT: Ft. Worth! #Pack9 headed to TCU’s regional, joining Stony Brook and Sacred Heart.
A video posted by NC State Baseball (@ncstatebaseball) on
Should the Pack manage to prevail in Fort Worth, they would likely remain in Texas for the Super Regionals, as the Fort Worth Regional is paired with the College Station Regional (Texas A&M).
Time to make Tejas the Pack’s bitch.
And while the Pack will have to become road warriors to advance thru this year’s bracket, by all accounts they are a confident bunch in spite of Sunday’s championship game loss.
#NCState baseball’s ACC title loss on Sunday was a speed bump, not a setback @LukeDeCock says http://t.co/IKC9wft0A1 pic.twitter.com/XRWpp4q6w1 — newsobserver.com (@newsobserver) May 25, 2015
This loss wasn’t bitter for NC State baseball team (NewsObserver.com)
N.C. State came so far, so fast at the end of this season, culminating in a 3-0 run through pool play in Durham that included wins over Notre Dame and Miami, that falling short didn’t sting like it might have otherwise.
“This weekend, it kind of showed everybody on the team that we could win the tight games,” N.C. State catcher Andrew Knizner said. “When we play with confidence, we can compete with anybody in the country – beating Miami, who’s top five or whatever they are. It gives us confidence going into a regional that we can play with the best teams in the country.”
No, this team still feels pretty good about things heading into the NCAA tournament, and for good reason despite Sunday’s loss. Whatever sour taste was left from last season, the bitter sting of what might have been, has been washed away. Down the stretch, this team has been nothing but sweet.
–
So, for those of us who are still clinging to the bitter taste of Sunday’s defeat, let’s take a page from the team itself and get our minds right. There’s still baseball to be played, hopefully a lot, and one never knows what this team might be capable of.
And besides….
–
As an aside, Congrats to both Louisville (#3) and Miami (#5) for earning national seeds.
As another aside, Carolina did not make the field as one of the first four out.
–
Go Pack!!!!
–
