The North Carolina Tar Heels get the honor of opening the 2024 College World Series, hosting ACC rival UVA on Friday, June 14 at 2 p.m.
UNC needed late-inning magic and a few career outings from star closer Dalton Pence to win its own Super Regional, while the Cavaliers breezed through their Regional and Super Regionals. Both conference foes faced off in the regular season, with UVA winning two of three over Easter weekend, though North Carolina salvaged the series finale.
Both the Diamond Heels and Cavaliers will be joined by fellow ACC programs Florida State and NC State, plus four SEC schools in Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Florida. FSU and Tennessee join UNC and UVA’s side of the bracket, while Kentucky, NC State, Texas A&M and Florida make up the other side.
One fun prediction the media likes to do before tournaments is the re-seeding of the team.
North Carolina, which enters the CWS as the fourth national seed, is also the fourth seed in 247Sports’ re-seeding of the Omaha Eight.
“North Carolina accounted for many of the tournament’s biggest fireworks in “Chapel Thrill,” winning in walk-off fashion multiple times en route to Omaha,” 247Sports, Carter Bahns wrote. “The concern with the Tar Heels is whether or not their narrow victories are sustainable, but winning in such exciting fashion goes a long way in the confidence department, and that is often half the battle in the NCAA Tournament. Vance Honeycutt seems determined to will this team to its first national championship and is one of the hottest hitters in the CWS field, after he went 4-9 with two home runs in the super regional round. That was in addition to the two-homer game he logged in the Chapel Hill Regional opener.”
Tennessee (top-ranked), Kentucky (second) and Texas A&M (third) are ahead of the Diamond Heels, while Florida State (fifth), UVA (sixth), Florida (seventh) and NC State (eighth) fall behind.
As we learned immediately in the Regional and Super Regional rounds, pre-tournament seeding means very little.
Bahns’ analysis brings up a strong point, though – will UNC need late-inning rallies to win?
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