UNC, in last five out last week, now projected to make the NCAA baseball field

By R.L. Bynum

The latest D1 Baseball projection of the NCAA tournament field has Carolina as the No. 3 seed in the Conway, S.C., regional, with No. 8 Coastal Carolina as the host.

That projection has No. 13 East Carolina (31–11), which lost to the Tar Heels (29–17) 2–1 in Greenville on Wednesday, as the No. 2 seed in that regional, with Maine as the No. 4 seed.

Carolina plays at Coastal Carolina, listed in the projection as the No. 9 overall seed, on May 16.

This projection comes a week after D1 Baseball listed UNC as one of the last five out, a list that now includes N.C. State. The Tar Heels and the Wolfpack play a three-game set May 11–12 at Boshamer Stadium.

D1Baseball projects that No. 2 Wake Forest, No. 11 Miami and No. 19 Boston College will all be No. 1 seeds and regional hosts.

Carolina’s RPI ranking dropped four spots to No. 40 after Tuesday’s 6–5 home loss to No. 13 Campbell, projected to be in the Winston-Salem regional. But UNC’s RPI got a boost by taking two of three at Virginia Tech last weekend.

Conway is the same regional that College Sports Madness projects for UNC, but with the other teams Iowa and Central Connecticut State.

Baseball America‘s projection has UNC and ECU in the Columbia, S.C., regional.