Updating NC State baseball’s NCAA Tournament bracketology heading into regular season finale vs. UNC

NC State trekked to Stanford with the hopes of building momentum by claiming its first road series victory of the season, while also looking to bolster its NCAA Tournament resume, this past weekend. Despite having a chance to win each of the three games, the Pack only managed to win Saturday’s tilt.

Even though it lost its third ACC series in the last four tries, the Wolfpack remains in the postseason picture going into the regular season finale amid its late-season slide. 

Elliott Avent’s club, which is set to host No. 2 North Carolina at Doak Field this weekend, is still a key fixture in the four major NCAA Tournament bracket projections as it looks to make its 10th appearance in its last 11 tries. 

Baseball America projected NC State as a 3-seed against No. 25-seed Oklahoma State in the Gainesville Regional. The other teams in the pod would be No. 8 Florida and Florida Gulf Coast in this scenario, while being paired with the Tallahassee Regional (No. 9 Florida State, No. 22 Coastal Carolina, Miami (Ohio) and Holy Cross) for the second weekend of the tournament.

Jacob Rudner, the outlet’s bracketology expert, laid out NC State’s path to an at-large bid against UNC in a rather simple way after the program’s RPI ranking fell to No. 43 after the series loss at Stanford — dangerously close to the selection bubble.

“A series win would be more than enough to secure a tournament spot,” Rudner wrote. “Going 1-2 could also prove sufficient, especially with a win or two in the ACC Tournament. But a sweep would leave the Wolfpack in a precarious position.”

D1Baseball also placed NC State firmly in the field as a 3-seed against No. 22 Oklahoma State in the Starkville Regional. No. 12 Mississippi State would be the host in this bracket, while Southeastern Louisiana would round it out. The winner of this weekend would square off with the victor of the Chapel Hill Regional – No. 5 UNC, No. 27 UCSB, Liberty and Campbell — in the Super Regional round.

On3, however, logged the Wolfpack as one of the last four teams into the field after its recent skid in league play. In this projection, NC State would be a 3-seed against No. 26 Tennessee in the Hattiesburg Regional with No. 8 Southern Miss as the host and Bucknell also there. The winner of this round would see the top team from the College Station regional — No. 9 Texas A&M, No. 24 Wake Forest, UTSA and Tarleton State — the following weekend.

Rounding out the bracketology exercises is USA Today, which also recorded a last four in projection for NC State. It had the Wolfpack facing off with No. 25 Coastal Carolina in the Athens Regional, hosted by No. 6 Georgia with Yale also in the field. The winner of this pod would get the best squad from the Gainesville regional — No. 11 Florida, No. 22 Virginia, Arizona State and Bethune-Cookman — in the Super Regional round.

But before NC State can look ahead to the Selection Show on Memorial Day, the Wolfpack has an opportunity to boost its NCAA Tournament resume against UNC to close the regular season with the single-elimination bracket at the ACC Tournament waiting in Charlotte next week.