By R.L. Bynum
The Chapel Hill Regional is official.
The NCAA announced the 16 regional hosts for the baseball tournament on Sunday night, and, as expected, No. 7 North Carolina is one of them. Regional play starts Friday at Boshamer Stadium, where the Tar Heels are 32–2 this season.
The three teams joining the Tar Heels (42–13) in the double-elimination regional will be announced during the selection show on ESPN2, which starts at noon on Monday.
Monday is also when the NCAA announces its eight national seeds. On Sunday, Baseball America projected UNC as the No. 2 seed, and D1 Baseball had the Tar Heels as the No. 3 seed. If they advance past the regionals, the top eight national seeds are Super Regional hosts.
D1 Baseball projects the Tar Heels to host unranked teams South Carolina (36–23), CAA champion UNC Wilmington (39–19) and Sacred Heart (35–23), while BA has the other teams in the regional being No. 25 Texas (35–22), VCU (37–21) and Penn (24–23).
The ACC tied the SEC for the most regional hosts with five each.
Other ACC teams that will be regional hosts are Florida State (42–15), Clemson (41–14), Virginia (41–15) and N.C. State (33–20). Duke (39–18) beat the Seminoles 16–4 on Sunday to win the ACC championship, but that wasn’t enough for the Blue Devils to be a host for the first time in program history, and No. 22 Wake Forest (25–7) also won’t be a host either.
The Seminoles are regional hosts for an NCAA-record 36th time.
No. 9 East Carolina (42–15) will be a regional host despite not winning its conference tournament, giving the state of North Carolina three host cities. Greenville is the likely regional destination for Duke.
UNCW and High Point both earned automatic bids by winning their leagues.
It’s the 13th time UNC has been a regional host and the 12th since 2006. Carolina is 33–8 all-time in regional home games and has advanced to the Super Regionals nine times since the current format was implemented in 1999.
UNC was a regional host in 2022 and advanced to host a Super Regional against Arkansas, but the Razorbacks swept the Heels in two games.
All-session ticket packages go on sale to the public at noon Wednesday for $90, with single-game tickets on sale at noon Thursday for $20. Student tickets for their school’s games are $5.
Regional hosts
- Athens, Ga. — Georgia (39–15)
- Chapel Hill — North Carolina (42–13)
- Charlottesville, Va. — Virginia (41–15)
- Clemson, S.C. — Clemson (41–14)
- Bryan-College Station, Texas — Texas A&M (44–13)
- Corvallis, Ore. — Oregon State (42–14)
- Fayetteville, Ark. — Arkansas (43–14)
- Greenville, N.C. — East Carolina (43–15)
- Knoxville, Tenn. — Tennessee (50–11)
- Lexington, Ky. — Kentucky (40–14)
- Norman, Okla. — Oklahoma (37–19)
- Raleigh — N.C. State (33–20)
- Santa Barbara, Calif. — UC Santa Barbara (42–12)
- Stillwater, Okla. — Oklahoma State (40–17)
- Tallahassee, Fla. — Florida State (42–15)
- Tucson, Ariz. — Arizona (36–21)
UNC scores
| Date(s) | Day/ month | Times | Opponent (current rank) |
|---|---|---|---|
| February | |||
| 13–15 | Fri.-Sat. | 4, noon, 1 | vs. Indiana |
| 17 | Tuesday | 4 p.m. | vs. Richmond |
| 18 | Wednesday | 4 p.m. | vs. Longwood |
| 20–22 | Fri.-Sun. | 4 (Greenville), 2 (DBAP), 2 (CH) | vs. East Carolina |
| 24 | Tuesday | 4 p.m. | vs. N.C. A&T |
| 25 | Wednesday | 4 p.m. | vs. VCU |
| 27–28 | Fri., Sat. | 4 p.m., 2 p.m. | vs. Le Moyne |
| March | |||
| 1 | Sunday | 1 p.m. | vs. Le Moyne |
| 3 | Tuesday | 4 p.m. | vs. Elon |
| 6–8 | Fri.-Sun. | 4, 2, 1 | vs. Virginia |
| 10 | Tuesday | 4 p.m. | vs. Bucknell |
| 13–15 | Fri.-Sun. | 9, 5, 4 | at California |
| 18 | Wednesday | 4 p.m. | vs. UNCG |
| 20–22 | Fri.-Sun. | 8, 2, 1 | vs. No. 8 Louisville |
| 24 | Tuesday | 6:30 | vs. South Carolina in Charlotte |
| 27–29 | Fri.-Sun. | 6:30, 3, 1 | at Notre Dame |
| 31 | Tuesday | 8 p.m. | vs. Campbell |
| April | |||
| 2–4 | Thur.-Sat. | 6, 6, 2 | vs. Boston College |
| 7 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | vs. Charlotte |
| 10–12 | Fri.-Sun. | 6, 2, 12:30 | at No. 19 Clemson |
| 14 | Tuesday | 6 p.m. | vs. UNCW |
| 17–19 | Fri-Sun. | 6, noon, 1 | vs. No. 5 Georgia Tech |
| 21 | Tuesday | 6 p.m. | vs. High Point |
| 23–25 | Fri.-Sun. | 7, 6, 3 | at Duke |
| 28 | Tuesday | 7 p.m. | vs. No. 6 Coastal Carolina |
| 29 | Wednesday | 6 p.m. | vs. Queens |
| May | |||
| 3 | Sunday | 2 p.m. (non-conference game) | vs. Duke |
| 6 | Wednesday | 6 p.m. | vs. Winthrop |
| 8–10 | Fri.-Sun. | 6, noon, 1 | vs. Pittsburgh |
| 12 | Tuesday | 6 p.m. | at UNCW |
| 14–16 | Thurs.-Sat. | 7, 6, 1 | at No. 17 N.C. State |
| 19–24 | Tues.-Sun. | ACC tournament | Charlotte |
| 29–31 | Fri.-Sun. | NCAA Regionals | Campus sites |
| June | |||
| 5–7 | Fri.-Sun. | NCAA Super Regionals | Campus sites |
| 12–22 | Fri.-Mon | College World Series | Omaha, Neb. |
Photo courtesy of the ACC by Nell Redmond
tarheeltribune.com 