NC State Newsstand: Where Pack baseball stands in the latest NCAA Tournament projections
NC State baseball is trying to play its way into the NCAA Tournament regional hosting ranks down the stretch of the season, but for now, it appears the Wolfpack is just outside of the top 16 in the latest bracket projections.
D1Baseball put the Pack as a No. 2-seed at the No. 5 national seed Kentucky in the Lexington Regional. The Wolfpack would be joined by Utah and Bowling Green in the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament. The winner of that regional would face the winner of the Charlottesville Regional, hosted by No. 12 national seed Virginia.
In Baseball America’s projection, meanwhile, NC State was slated to travel to the Greenville Regional, hosted by No. 8 national seed East Carolina. The other teams at that site would include Utah and Army. The winner of that region would be set to face the winner of the Corvallis Regional on the campus of No. 9 national seed Oregon State.
NC State, the No. 28 team in the most current RPI rankings, has an opportunity to move up in the bracket over the final three weekends of the regular season. The Wolfpack has three straight league series against top-15 RPI teams: at Florida State and Virginia, and home against Wake Forest.
Tweets of the day
Pack basketball coach Kevin Keatts and forward DJ Burns sounded the siren for the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena.
Wolfpack men’s golf had two individuals make the NCAA Tournament field as at-large selections.
NC State graduate guard Michael O’Connell will be back for his final season of collegiate eligibility next year.
Quote of the day
NC State baseball has lost five straight midweek games, but junior catcher Jacob Cozart thought the Wolfpack is resilient and is able to move past the losses against top-ranked teams on the weekends.
“We don’t dwell,” Cozart said. “We’d like to win these games, but at the same time, we know how important the weekends are against a gauntlet of a schedule coming up. We’re good at facing adversity and knowing how to bounce back.”
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