BALTIMORE, Maryland May 21, 2014 - The season may be over for two fine college baseball teams. North Carolina beat North Carolina State, 4-3, in the first game of the ACC Tournament on Tuesday, bouncing the Wolfpack from the tournament and making their chances of getting an NCAA bid all but non-existant. In the second game, Georgia Tech defeated Wake Forest, 5-3, eliminating the Demon Deacons and doing great damage to their chances of getting a national tournament bid. The Wolfpack's current overall record is 32-23. The Deacons overall record is 30-26. The NCAA announced the field for the 2014 National Tournament on Monday, May 26, at noon.
After falling behind, 1-0, in the first inning, the Tar Heels began a comeback in the second when Skye Bolt hit his third home run of the season. With the score tied, 1-1, in the third, UNC took the lead for good with four consecutive hits and three runs, making the score 4-1, Heels. Key in the charge was a triple by Mark Russell, who also doubled later in the game. Bolt also knocked in a run in the fourth with a sacrifice fly. In the game, UNC used five pitchers, and the four relief pitchers faced a total of ten inherited runners. Not one of them scored, which in and of itself explains the Carolina one run win. After falling behind, 4-1, State quickly cut the lead to one run when Bubby Riley hit a two-run single in the top of the fourth, but they did not score again. State stranded eleven runners. North Carolina will now face Florida State, Virginia and Maryland over the next four days.
Daniel Spignola was the hitting hero in the Georgia Tech win over Wake Forest. He went three for four and knocked in two of the Yellow Jacket's five runs. Tech also got three scoreless relief innings from Sam Clay as the ninth seeded jackets moved on to pool play, where they will first play Miami today, and Clemson and Duke after that. There is no question that Pool A is the weaker, overall, of the two pools. The ACC has three superior teams: Virginia, Miami and Florida State. Two of those three are in Pool B along with Maryland and now, North Carolina. If Maryland gets two wins in that pool, they should absolutely get an NCAA bid.
In other tournament games on Tuesday, in the Southeast Conference, Kentucky whacked No. 25 Alabama, 7-1; No. 10 Vanderbilt just got by in-state rival Tennessee, 3-2; N0. 27 Arkansas beat Texas A & M, 4-0; and No. 21 Mississippi State got by Georgia, 5-4. In the Pac-12, which is not yet into its tournament, No. 15 Oregon stunned No. 1 Oregon State, 6-2; and in non-league action, Arizona State beat Abilene Christian, 4-2, and Cal State-Fullerton embarassed Southern Cal, 17-3. In the Big South Tournament, No. 28 Liberty - whom Maryland toyed with earlier in the season, beat Gardner-Webb, 3-0; Winthrop downed Charleston Southern, 4-0; Coastal Carolina downed Campbell, 9-2; and High Point beat Radford, 3-2. In the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, being played in Terre Haute, Indiana, No. 30, Dallas Baptist edged Missouri State, 3-2, in ten innings; Illinois State beat former National Champion Wichita State, 6-0; Southern Illinois crushed Evansville, 9-1; and Bradley beat Indiana State, 6-2. In the Southern Conference Tournament at Charleston, South Carolina, The Citadel beat back Elon, 10-7, and Furman downed UNC-Greensboro, 6-5, in eleven innings. Other Tournaments start today.
Today's ACC games include 4th Seeded Duke and 5th Seeded Clemson, which got underway at 11 am, Top Seeded Miami and 9th Seeded Georgia Tech, which play at 3 pm, and 2nd Seeded Florida State and 7th Seeded North Carolina, which play tonight at 7 pm. Maryland's first game is tomorrow at 11 am against 3rd Seeded Virginia.
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