News-Record.com

As in insightful, witty, poignant and powerful piece in Sunday's News & Record pointed out, six teams from the state of North Carolina made the NCAA Tournament.
Let's put that in perspective. Baseball hotbed Florida had four teams in the field. Texas had eight. California had nine. Third out of 50 states is not too shabby.

In other words, North Carolina has a pretty legitimate claim to "hotbed" status when it comes to college baseball.

Of course that claim would carry a great deal more weight if North Carolina schools did well in the NCAA Tournament. So let's take a look at their draws, shall we?

UNC is seeded No. 2 nationally and will host a regional in Cary. Thanks to the NCAA's emphasis on geography, two other North Carolina schools - Elon and UNC-Wilmington - will join the Tar Heels in that regional, along with Mt. Saint Mary's in a sequel of the NCAA basketball tournament. The Mount had better pray (perhaps to Saint Mary?) that the baseball matchup goes better. It's a testament to UNC-Wilmington's strong regular season that it still held on to a No. 2 seed in the regional, despite going 1-2 in the CAA tournament. That's what a No. 22 ranking in the RPI will do for you. Elon seemed to get a bit shafted with a No. 3 seed after rolling through the SoCon, but geography didn't help the Phoenix. And apparently, as shown by the strange snubbing of College of Charleston, the selection committee doesn't think too much of the SoCon.

N.C. State also got to host a regional. The Wolfpack lost two of three in the ACC Tournament, but its strong finish in the conference regular season - and the still relatively new confines of Doak Field - helped its cause. Right away there's an obvious story line. South Carolina - coached by former Wolfpack head coach Ray Tanner - is the No. 2 seed. State fans had better start buying up tickets, because plenty of Garnett and Black will be coming over the border this weekend. Oh, and Charlotte - the team that knocked State out of last year's NCAA Tournament - is the No. 3 seed. So other than getting to play at home, the Wolfpack didn't get too many favors with this draw. Oh yeah, James Madison, the alma mater of Jason McIntyre, former News & Record intern and current co-creater of The Big Lead, is the No. 4 seed.

The sixth North Carolina team, East Carolina, was sent to the Conway, S.C. regional, hosted by Coastal Carolina. The Pirates did grab a No. 2 seed and will play No. 3 seed Alabama to start things off. It's been up and down for ECU this season, but a win over Rice, the No. 6 national seed, in the Conference USA tournament, had to help the Pirates' confidence.

Since we're not actually playing, we can also afford to look ahead. The winner of UNC's regional is bracketed to play the winner of Coastal Carolina's regional in the super-regional. The winner of N.C. State's regional is bracketed to play the winner of the Georgia regional regional in the super-regional.

UPDATE:

Thanks to readers for catching my error about ECU's regional assignment. I misread the bracket, which had ECU and Bama right below Coastal and right above Nebraska. Of course, I should have thought twice about how little sense it would make to send ECU and Bama out to Lincoln. Sorry about the mistake.