By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina jumped four spots to No. 8 in the D1 Baseball Top 25 after winning two of three games last weekend in an emotional series at Virginia Tech.

The Tar Heels (31–9, 13–8 ACC) have won four consecutive league series and 15 of their last 17 games entering Tuesday night’s 3 p.m. home game (ACC Network Extra) against Presbyterian (16–22).

It’s UNC’s highest rank since it was No. 3 on March 3 before losing two of three to Stanford in the first ACC series of the season. It’s Carolina’s first time in the top 10 since it was No. 8 on March 10 before losing two of three at Louisville (28–11, 10–8), No. 19 in this week’s poll (down two), the last league series it lost.

There was bad news on Monday, though, with Coach Scott Forbes confirming on the Inside Carolina podcast “This Week in UNC Baseball,” that right-handed reliever Matthew Matthijs is out for the season.

Carolina comes off a wild series win in Blacksburg. After winning Friday’s opener over the Hokies 9–6, Virginia Tech won 10–6 Saturday in an emotional game.

The Hokies were warned after Sam Tackett hit a home run and flipped his bat toward UNC catcher Luke Stevenson in the first inning. In the eighth inning, Virginia Tech’s Jared Davis flipped his bat after hitting a two-run home run and got ejected. At the end of the eighth inning, UNC pitcher Folger Boaz threw a pitch behind Anderson French. That led to a lot of yelling back and forth and the ejections of Forbes and Virginia Tech coach John Szefc.

Here's a (relatively short) video overview of today's drama between Virginia Tech and North Carolina, which started in the first inning with warnings and ended with both head coaches ejected as well as the Hokies' Jared Davis & Anderson French.

Rubber match tomorrow at 1 p.m. pic.twitter.com/M7fRiGw85k

— Bradley Smart (@fridaystarters) April 19, 2025

Davis and French were both suspended for Sunday’s finale, in which the Tar Heels rallied from a 2–0 deficit to win 7–4 behind Jackson Van De Brake’s big game. He went 3 for 6 with a homer and three RBI.

Clemson (35–7, 13–5), which won two of three last weekend against Louisville, moved up one spot to No. 2. Florida State (29–7, 11–4), which had its weekend series with Virginia canceled because of the shooting on its campus, moved up three spots to No 3. Other ACC teams in the poll are Georgia Tech (29–11, 14–7) at No. 24 (down 10 spots) and N.C. State (27–12, 12–6) at No. 25 (wasn’t previously ranked).

UNC trails N.C. State for the coveted fourth and final double-bye in the ACC tournament, but while the Tar Heels visit last-place Pittsburgh (18–19, 5–13) this weekend, the Wolfpack is at home against Clemson.

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D1 Baseball Top 25

Rank	Team	Record	Previous
1	Texas	33-5	1
2	Clemson	35-7	3
3	Oregon State	30-7	6
4	Florida State	29-7	7
5	Arkansas	34-7	2
6	Tennessee	33-7	4
7	LSU	34-7	9
8	North Carolina	31-9	12
9	Vanderbilt	30-10	19
10	Georgia	33-9	5
11	Auburn	27-13	8
12	UC Irvine	28-9	13
13	Oregon	27-11	16
14	Oklahoma	29-10	18
15	UCLA	29-10	10
16	Arizona	28-11	22
17	West Virginia	34-4	24
18	Alabama	31-10	15
19	Louisville	28-11	17
20	Troy	28-12	20
21	Coastal Carolina	30-10	21
22	Southern Miss	27-13	23
23	Ole Miss	28-12	11
24	Georgia Tech	29-11	14
25	N.C. State	27-12	NR

Dropped out: TCU

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ACC standings

	League	GB	Overall
No. 16 Georgia Tech	19–11	—	39–16
No. 6 Florida State	17–10	½	37–13
No. 3 North Carolina	18–11	½	39–12
No. 22 N.C. State	17–11	1	33–18
No. 14 Clemson	18–12	1	41–15
Virginia	16–11	1½	32–17
Duke	17–13	2	36–18
Wake Forest	16–14	3	36–19
Miami	15–14	3½	31–23
No. 21 Louisville	15–15	4	35–20
Notre Dame	14–16	5	32–20
Virginia Tech	12–18	7	30–24
Boston College	11–19	8	26–28
Stanford	11–19	8	27–24
Pittsburgh	10–20	9	27–26
California	9–21	10½	22–30

Thursday-Saturday series
No. 16 Georgia Tech at Duke: Thursday: GT 7–6; Friday: Duke 14–4 (7 innings); Saturday: GT 8–2
No. 14 Clemson at Pittsburgh: Clemson swept 6–1, 11–2 and 13–6
Virginia at Virginia Tech: Thursday: Va. 12–2; Friday: VT 5–4; Saturday: Va. 3–1
Stanford at No. 22 N.C. State: Thursday: State 7–2: Friday: Stanford 4–3, 10 innings; Saturday: Stanford 6–3
Wake Forest at Louisville: Thursday: WF 14–4; Friday: WF 5–4; Saturday: UL 14–9
No. 3 North Carolina at No. 6 Florida State: Thursday: UNC 8–3: Friday: UNC 11–1, 7 innings; Saturday: FSU 5–4
Notre Dame at Miami: Thursday: ND 3–2; Friday: Miami 15–1, 7 innings: Saturday: ND 12–2
Boston College at California: Thursday: Cal 8–6; Friday: BC 10–9; Saturday: Cal 4–3, 10 innings

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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 UNC Athletics