Tar Heels Earn No. 10 National Seed, Open NCAA Play Friday
UNC welcomes Georgia, VCU and Hofstra to Chapel Hill
For the first time in three years, postseason baseball returns to Boshamer Stadium.
Fresh off winning its eighth ACC Championship on Sunday, North Carolina was announced Monday as the No. 10 national seed and a regional host for the NCAA Tournament. UNC will play Hofstra, the No. 4 seed in the Chapel Hill Regional, at 2 p.m. Friday before No. 2 seed Georgia faces No. 3 seed VCU at 7.
Ranked No. 4 nationally in the RPI and No. 2 in strength of schedule, the Tar Heels (38-19) entered Selection Monday with hopes of receiving a top-eight national seed. Their 20 wins over Quadrant 1 teams, tied with No. 1 Tennessee for the most in the country, looked like they might get UNC over the hump, but the team’s five series losses were likely too much to overcome.
Coming off the last of those series losses on April 24 at Virginia, the Tar Heels appeared to be in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament. But over the last five weeks, they did more than enough to secure a spot in the field of 64, winning 15 of their last 17 games — highlighted by three straight series wins and a 4-0 week at the ACC Tournament.
UNC is 110-73 in 33 NCAA Tournament appearances and has reached the College World Series 11 times, most recently in 2018. This will be the 12th time overall and the first under second-year head coach Scott Forbes that the Tar Heels have hosted a regional; they’re 29-7 all-time in home regional games and have advanced to the super regional round eight times since 2006.
The winner of the Chapel Hill Regional will play the winner of the Stillwater Regional (Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Grand Canyon and Missouri State) in the super regional round next weekend.
2022 NCAA Chapel Hill Regional Schedule
Friday, June 3
Game 1: #1 North Carolina (38-19) vs. #4 Hofstra (30-21), 2 p.m.
Game 2: #2 Georgia (35-21) vs. #3 VCU (40-18), 7 p.m.
Saturday, June 4
Game 3: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, TBD
Game 4: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, TBD
Sunday, June 5
Game 5: Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, TBD
Game 6: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5, TBD
Monday, June 6
Game 7, if necessary, TBD